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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Roman Literature from its
+Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Volume II by John Dunlop
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan
+       Age. Volume II
+
+Author: John Dunlop
+
+Release Date: April 1, 2011 [Ebook #35751]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF‐8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE FROM ITS EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE AUGUSTAN AGE. VOLUME II***
+
+
+
+
+
+                                *HISTORY*
+
+                                   OF
+
+                          *ROMAN LITERATURE,*
+
+                                  FROM
+
+                          *ITS EARLIEST PERIOD*
+                                   TO
+
+                            THE AUGUSTAN AGE.
+
+
+                            IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+                                   BY
+                              JOHN DUNLOP,
+                    AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF FICTION.
+
+FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION.
+
+VOL. II.
+
+PUBLISHED BY
+E. LITTELL, CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA.
+G. & C. CARVILL, BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
+1827
+
+
+
+
+
+                       _James Kay, Jun. Printer,_
+                 _S. E. Corner of Race & Sixth Streets,_
+                             _Philadelphia._
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS.
+
+
+   [Agriculture]
+   Marcus Porcius Cato
+   Marcus Terentius Varro
+   Nigidius Figulus
+   History
+   Quintus Fabius Pictor
+   Sallust
+   Julius Cæsar
+   Cicero
+Appendix
+   Livius Andronicus, Nævius
+   Ennius
+   Plautus
+   Terence
+   Lucilius
+   Lucretius
+   Catullus
+   Laberius—Publilius Syrus
+   Cato—Varro
+   Sallust
+   Cæsar
+   Cicero
+Chronological Table
+Index
+Transcriber’s note
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                *HISTORY*
+
+
+                                    OF
+
+
+                         *ROMAN LITERATURE, &C.*
+
+
+
+
+
+                                *HISTORY*
+
+
+                                    OF
+
+
+                         *ROMAN LITERATURE, &c.*
+
+
+In almost all States, poetical composition has been employed and
+considerably improved before prose. First, because the imagination expands
+sooner than reason or judgment; and, secondly, because the early language
+of nations is best adapted to the purposes of poetry, and to the
+expression of those feelings and sentiments with which it is conversant.
+
+Thus, in the first ages of Greece, verse was the ordinary written
+language, and prose was subsequently introduced as an art and invention.
+In like manner, at Rome, during the early advances of poetry, the progress
+of which has been detailed in the preceding volume, prose composition
+continued in a state of neglect and barbarism.
+
+The most ancient prose writer, at least of those whose works have
+descended to us, was a man of little feeling or imagination, but of sound
+judgment and inflexible character, who exercised his pen on the subject of
+_Agriculture_, which, of all the peaceful arts, was most highly esteemed
+by his countrymen.
+
+The long winding coast of Greece, abounding in havens, and the innumerable
+isles with which its seas were studded, rendered the Greeks, from the
+earliest days, a trafficking, seafaring, piratic people: And many of the
+productions of their oldest poets, are, in a great measure, addressed to
+what may be called the maritime taste or feeling which prevailed among
+their countrymen. This sentiment continued to be cherished as long as the
+chief literary state in Greece preserved the sovereignty of the
+seas—compelled its allies to furnish vessels of war, and trusted to its
+naval armaments for the supremacy it maintained during the brightest ages
+of Greece. In none either of the Doric or Ionian states, was agriculture
+of such importance as to exercise much influence on manners or literature.
+Their territories were so limited, that the inhabitants were never removed
+to such a distance from the capital as to imbibe the ideas of husbandmen.
+In Thessaly and Lacedæmon, agriculture was accounted degrading, and its
+cares were committed to slaves. The vales of Bœotia were fruitful, but
+were desolated by floods. Farms of any considerable extent could scarcely
+be laid down on the limited, though lovely isles of the Ægean and Ionian
+seas. The barren soil and mountains of the centre of Peloponnesus confined
+the Arcadians to pasturage—an employment bearing some analogy to
+agriculture, but totally different in its mental effects, leading to a
+life of indolence, contemplation, and wandering, instead of the
+industrious, practical, and settled habits of husbandmen. Though the
+Athenians breathed the purest air beneath the clearest skies, and their
+long summer was gilded by the brightest beams of Apollo, the soil of
+Attica was sterile and metallic; while, from the excessive inequalities in
+its surface, all the operations of agriculture were of the most difficult
+and hazardous description. The streams were overflowing torrents, which
+stripped the soil, leaving nothing but a light sand, on which grain would
+scarcely grow. But it was with the commencement of the Peloponnesian war
+that the exercise of agriculture terminated in Attica. The country being
+left unprotected, owing to the injudicious policy of Pericles, was
+annually ravaged by the Spartans, and the husbandmen were forced to seek
+refuge within the walls of Athens. In the early part of the age of
+Pericles, the Athenians possessed ornamented villas in the country; but
+they always returned to the city in the evening(1). We do not hear that
+the great men in the early periods of the republic, as Themistocles and
+Aristides, were farmers; and the heroes of its latter ages, as Iphicrates
+and Timotheus, chose their retreats in Thrace, the islands of the
+Archipelago, or coast of Ionia.
+
+A picture, in every point of view the reverse of this, is presented to us
+by the _Agreste Latium_. The ancient Italian mode of life was almost
+entirely agricultural and rural; and with exception, perhaps, of the
+Etruscans, none of the Italian states were in any degree maritime or
+commercial. Italy was well adapted for every species of agriculture, and
+was most justly termed by her greatest poet, _magna parens frugum_.
+Dionysius of Halicarnassus(2), Strabo(3), and Pliny(4), talk with
+enthusiasm of its fertile soil and benignant climate. Where the ground was
+most depressed and marshy, the meadows were stretched out for the
+pasturage of cattle. In the level country, the rich arable lands, such as
+the Campanian and Capuan plains, extended in vast tracts, and produced a
+profusion of fruits of every species, while on the acclivities, where the
+skirts of the mountains began to break into little hills and sloping
+fields, the olive and vine basked on soils famed for Messapian oil, and
+for wines of which the very names cheer and revive us. The mountains
+themselves produced marble and timber, and poured from their sides many a
+delightful stream, which watered the fields, gladdened the pastures, and
+moistened the meads to the very brink of the shore. Well then might Virgil
+exclaim, in a burst of patriotism and poetry which has never been
+surpassed,—
+
+  “Sed neque Medorum sylvæ, ditissima terra,
+  Nec pulcher Ganges, atque auro turbidus Hermus,
+  Laudibus Italiæ certent; non Bactra, neque Indi,
+  Totaque thuriferis Panchaia pinguis arenis.
+  Hic ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus æstas;
+  Bis gravidæ pecudes, bis pomis utilis arbor.
+    *  *  *  *
+  Salve, magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus(5)!”
+
+One would not suppose that agricultural care was very consistent, at least
+in a small state, with frequent warfare. But in no period of their
+republic did the Romans neglect the advantages which the land they
+inhabited presented for husbandry. Romulus, who had received a rustic
+education, and had spent his youth in hunting, had no attachment to any
+peaceful arts, except to rural labours; and this feeling pervaded his
+legislation. His Sabine successor, Numa Pompilius, who well understood and
+discharged the duties of sovereignty, divided the whole territory of Rome
+into different cantons. An exact account was rendered to him of the manner
+in which these were cultivated; and he occasionally went in person to
+survey them, in order to encourage those farmers whose lands were well
+tilled, and to reproach others with their want of industry(6). By the
+institution, too, of various religious festivals, connected with
+agriculture, it came to be regarded with a sort of sacred reverence. Ancus
+Martius, who trod in the steps of Numa, recommended to his people the
+assiduous cultivation of their lands. After the expulsion of the kings, an
+Agrarian law, by which only seven acres were allotted to each citizen, was
+promulgated, and for some time rigidly enforced. Exactness and economy in
+the various occupations of agriculture were the natural consequences of
+such regulations. Each Roman having only a small portion of land assigned
+to him, and the support of his family depending entirely on the produce
+which it yielded, its culture necessarily engaged his whole attention.
+
+In these early ages of the Roman commonwealth, when the greatest men
+possessed but a few acres, the lands were laboured by the proprietors
+themselves. The introduction of commerce, and the consequent acquisition
+of wealth, had not yet enabled individuals to purchase the estates of
+their fellow-citizens, and to obtain a revenue from the rent of land
+rather than from its cultivation.
+
+The patricians, who, in the city, were so distinct from the plebeian
+orders, were thus confounded with them in the country, in the common
+avocations of husbandry. After having presided over the civil affairs of
+the republic, or commanded its armies, the most distinguished citizens
+returned, without repining, to till the lands of their forefathers.
+Cincinnatus, who was found at labour in his fields by those who came to
+announce his election to the dictatorship, was not a singular example of
+the same hand which held the plough guiding also the helm of the state,
+and erecting the standard of its legions. So late as the time of the first
+Carthaginian war, Regulus, in the midst of his victorious career in
+Africa, asked leave from the senate to return to Italy, in order to
+cultivate his farm of seven acres, which had been neglected during his
+absence(7). Many illustrious names among the Romans originated in
+agricultural employments, or some circumstances of rustic skill and
+labour, by which the founders of families were distinguished. The Fabii
+and Lentuli were supposed to have been celebrated for the culture of
+pulses, and the Asinii and Vitellii for the art of rearing animals. In the
+time of the elder Cato, though the manual operations were performed for
+the most part by servants, the great men resided chiefly on their
+farms(8); and they continued to apply to the study and practice of
+agriculture long after they had carried the victorious arms of their
+country beyond the confines of Italy. They did not, indeed, follow
+agriculture as their sole avocation; but they prosecuted it during the
+intervals of peace, and in the vacations of the Forum. The art being thus
+exercised by men of high capacity, received the benefit of all the
+discoveries, inventions, or experiments suggested by talents and force of
+intellect. The Roman warriors tilled their fields with the same
+intelligence as they pitched their camps, and sowed corn with the same
+care with which they drew up their armies for battle. Hence, as a modern
+Latin poet observes, dilating on the expression of Pliny, the earth
+yielded such an exuberant return, that she seemed as it were to delight in
+being ploughed with a share adorned with laurels, and by a ploughman who
+had earned a triumph:—
+
+  “Hanc etiam, ut perhibent, sese formabat ad artem,
+  Cùm domito Fabius Dictator ab hoste redibat:
+  Non veritus, medio dederat qui jura Senatu,
+  Ferre idem arboribusque suis, terræque colendæ,
+  Victricesque manus ruri præstare serendo.
+  Ipsa triumphales tellus experta colonos,
+  Atque ducum manibus quondam versata suorum,
+  Majores fructus, majora arbusta ferebat(9).”
+
+Nor were the Romans contented with merely labouring the ground: They also
+delivered precepts for its proper cultivation, which, being committed to
+writing, formed, as it were, a new science, and, being derived from actual
+experience, had an air of originality rarely exhibited in their literary
+productions. Such maxims were held by the Romans in high respect, since
+they were considered as founded on the observation of men who had
+displayed the most eminent capacity and knowledge in governing the state,
+in framing its laws, and leading its armies.
+
+These precepts which formed the works of the agricultural writers—the
+_Rusticæ rei scriptores_—are extremely interesting and comprehensive. The
+Romans had a much greater variety than we, of grain, pulse, and roots;
+and, besides, had vines, olives, and other plantations, which were
+regarded as profitable crops. The situation, too, and construction of a
+villa, with the necessary accommodation for slaves and workmen, the wine
+and oil cellars, the granaries, the repositories for preserving fruit, the
+poultry yard, and aviaries, form topics of much attention and detail.
+These were the appertenancies of the _villa rustica_, or complete
+farm-house, which was built for the residence only of an industrious
+husbandman, and with a view towards profit from the employments of
+agriculture. As luxury, indeed, increased, the villa was adapted to the
+accommodation of an opulent Roman citizen, and the country was resorted to
+rather for recreation than for the purpose of lucrative toil. What would
+Cato the Censor, distinguished for his industry and unceasing attention to
+the labours of the field, have thought of the following lines of Horace?
+
+  “O rus, quando ego te aspiciam? quandoque licebit
+  Nunc veterum libris, nunc somno et inertibus horis,
+  Ducere sollicitæ jucunda oblivia vitæ?”
+
+It was this more refined relish for the country, so keenly enjoyed by the
+Romans in the luxurious ages of the state, that furnished the subject for
+the finest passages and allusions in the works of the Latin poets, who
+seem to vie with each other in their praises of a country life, and the
+sweetness of the numbers in which they celebrate its simple and tranquil
+enjoyments. The Epode of Horace, commencing,
+
+  “Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis,”
+
+which paints the charms of rural existence, in the various seasons of the
+year—the well-known passages in Virgil’s _Georgics_, and those in the
+second book of Lucretius, are the most exquisite and lovely productions of
+these triumvirs of Roman poetry. But the ancient prose writers, with whom
+we are now to be engaged, regarded agriculture rather as an art than an
+amusement, and a country life as subservient to profitable employment, and
+not to elegant recreation. In themselves, however, these compositions are
+highly curious; they are curious, too, as forming a commentary and
+illustration of the subjects,
+
+  “Quas et facundi tractavit Musa Maronis.”
+
+It is likewise interesting to compare them with the works of the modern
+Italians on husbandry, as the _Liber Ruralium Commodorum_ of Crescenzio,
+written about the end of the thirteenth century,—the _Coltivazione
+Toscana_ of Davanzati,—Vittorio’s treatise, _Degli Ulivi_,—and even
+Alamanni’s poem _Coltivazione_, which closely follows, particularly as to
+the situation and construction of a villa, the precepts of Cato, Varro,
+and Columella. The plough used at this day by the peasantry in the
+Campagna di Roma, is of the same form as that of the ancient Latian
+husbandmen(10); and many other points of resemblance may be discovered, on
+a perusal of the most recent writers on the subject of Italian
+cultivation(11). Dickson, too, who, in his _Husbandry of the Ancients_,
+gives an account of Roman agriculture so far as connected with the labours
+of the British farmer, has shown, that, in spite of the great difference
+of soil and climate, many maxims of the old Roman husbandmen, as delivered
+by Cato and Varro, corresponded with the agricultural system followed in
+his day in England.
+
+Of the distinguished Roman citizens who practised agriculture, none were
+more eminent than Cato and Varro; and by them the precepts of the art were
+also committed to writing. Their works are original compositions, founded
+on experience, and not on Grecian models, like so many other Latin
+productions. Varro, indeed, enumerates about fifty Greek authors, who,
+previous to his time, had written on the subject of agriculture; and Mago,
+the Carthaginian, composed, in the Punic language, a much-approved
+treatise on the same topic, in thirty-two books, which was afterwards
+translated into Latin by desire of the senate. But the early Greek works,
+with the exception of Xenophon’s _Œconomics_ and the poem of Hesiod called
+_Works and Days_, have been entirely lost; the tracts published in the
+collection entitled _Geoponica_, being subsequent to the age of Varro.
+
+
+
+
+
+                           MARCUS PORCIUS CATO,
+
+
+better known by the name of Cato the Censor, wrote the earliest book on
+husbandry which we possess in the Latin language. This distinguished
+citizen was born in the 519th year of Rome. Like other Romans of his day,
+he was brought up to the profession of arms. In the short intervals of
+peace he resided, during his youth, at a small country-house in the Sabine
+territory, which he had inherited from his father. Near it there stood a
+cottage belonging to Manius Curius Dentatus, who had repeatedly triumphed
+over the Sabines and Samnites, and had at length driven Pyrrhus from
+Italy. Cato was accustomed frequently to walk over to the humble abode of
+this renowned commander, where he was struck with admiration at the
+frugality of its owner, and the skilful management of the farm which was
+attached to it. Hence it became his great object to emulate his
+illustrious neighbour, and adopt him as his model(12). Having made an
+estimate of his house, lands, slaves, and expenses, he applied himself to
+husbandry with new ardour, and retrenched all superfluity. In the morning
+he went to the small towns in the vicinity, to plead and defend the causes
+of those who applied to him for assistance. Thence he returned to his
+fields; where, with a plain cloak over his shoulders in winter, and almost
+naked in summer, he laboured with his servants till they had concluded
+their tasks, after which he sat down along with them at table, eating the
+same bread, and drinking the same wine(13). At a more advanced period of
+life, the wars, in which he commanded, kept him frequently at a distance
+from Italy, and his forensic avocations detained him much in the city; but
+what time he could spare was still spent at the Sabine farm, where he
+continued to employ himself in the profitable cultivation of the land. He
+thus became by the universal consent of his contemporaries, the best
+farmer of his age, and was held unrivalled for the skill and success of
+his agricultural operations(14). Though everywhere a rigid economist, he
+lived, it is said, more hospitably at his farm than in the city. His
+entertainments at his villa were at first but sparing, and seldom given;
+but as his wealth increased, he became more nice and delicate. “At first,”
+says Plutarch, “when he was but a poor soldier, he was not difficult in
+anything which related to his diet; but afterwards, when he grew richer,
+and made feasts for his friends, presently, when supper was done, he
+seized a leathern thong, and scourged those who had not given due
+attendance, or dressed anything carelessly(15).” Towards the close of his
+life, he almost daily invited some of his friends in the neighbourhood to
+sup with him; and the conversation at these meals turned not chiefly, as
+might have been expected, on rural affairs, but on the praises of great
+and excellent men among the Romans(16).
+
+It may be supposed, that in the evenings after the agricultural labours of
+the morning, and after his friends had left him, he noted down the
+precepts suggested by the observations and experience of the day. That he
+wrote such maxims for his own use, or the instruction of others, is
+unquestionable; but the treatise _De Re Rustica_, which now bears his
+name, appears to have been much mutilated, since Pliny and other writers
+allude to subjects as treated of by Cato, and to opinions as delivered by
+him in this book, which are nowhere to be found in any part of the work
+now extant.
+
+In its present state, it is merely the loose unconnected journal of a
+plain farmer, expressed with rude, sometimes with almost oracular brevity;
+and it wants all those elegant topics of embellishment and illustration
+which the subject might have so naturally suggested. It solely consists of
+the dryest rules of agriculture, and some receipts for making various
+kinds of cakes and wines. Servius says, it is addressed to the author’s
+son; but there is no such address now extant. It begins rather abruptly,
+and in a manner extremely characteristic of the simple manners of the
+author: “It would be advantageous to seek profit from commerce, if that
+were not hazardous; or by usury, if that were honest: but our ancestors
+ordained, that the thief should forfeit double the sum he had stolen, and
+the usurer quadruple what he had taken, whence it may be concluded, that
+they thought the usurer the worst of the two. When they wished highly to
+praise a good man, they called him a good farmer. A merchant is zealous in
+pushing his fortune, but his trade is perilous and liable to reverses. But
+farmers make the bravest men, and the stoutest soldiers. Their gain is the
+most honest, the most stable, and least exposed to envy. Those who
+exercise the art of agriculture, are of all others least addicted to evil
+thoughts.”
+
+Our author then proceeds to his rules, many of which are sufficiently
+obvious. Thus, he advises, that when one is about to purchase a farm, he
+should examine if the climate, soil, and exposure be good: he should see
+that it can be easily supplied with plenty of water,—that it lies in the
+neighbourhood of a town,—and near a navigable river, or the sea. The
+directions for ascertaining the quality of the land are not quite so clear
+or self-evident. He recommends the choice of a farm where there are few
+implements of labour, as this shews the soil to be easily cultivated; and
+where there are, on the other hand, a number of casks and vessels, which
+testify an abundant produce. With regard to the best way of laying out a
+farm when it is purchased, supposing it to be one of a hundred acres, the
+most profitable thing is a vineyard; next, a garden, that can be watered;
+then a willow grove; 4th, an olive plantation; 5th, meadow-ground; 6th,
+corn fields; and, lastly, forest trees and brushwood. Varro cites this
+passage, but he gives the preference to meadows: These required little
+expense; and, by his time, the culture of vines had so much increased in
+Italy, and such a quantity of foreign wine was imported, that vineyards
+had become less valuable than in the days of the Censor. Columella,
+however, agrees with Cato: He successively compares the profits accruing
+from meadows, pasture, trees, and corn, with those of vineyards; and, on
+an estimate, prefers the last.
+
+When a farm has been purchased, the new proprietor should perambulate the
+fields the day he arrives, or, if he cannot do so, on the day after, for
+the purpose of seeing what has been done, and what remains to be
+accomplished. Rules are given for the most assiduous employment without
+doors, and the most rigid economy within. When a servant is sick he will
+require less food. All the old oxen and the cattle of delicate frame, the
+old wagons, and old implements of husbandry, are to be sold off. The
+sordid parsimony of the Censor leads him to direct, that a provident
+_paterfamilias_ should sell such of his slaves as are aged and infirm; a
+recommendation which has drawn down on him the well-merited indignation of
+Plutarch(17). These are some of the duties of the master; and there
+follows a curious detail of the qualifications and duties of the
+_villicus_, or overseer, who, in particular, is prohibited from the
+exercise of religious rites, and consultation of augurs.
+
+It is probable that, in the time of Cato, the Romans had begun to extend
+their villas considerably, which makes him warn proprietors of land not to
+be rash in building. When a landlord is thirty-six years of age he may
+build, provided his fields have been brought into a proper state of
+cultivation. His direction with regard to the extent of the villa is
+concise, but seems a very proper one;—he advises, to build in such a
+manner that the villa may not need a farm, nor the farm a villa. Lucullus
+and Scævola both violated this golden rule, as we learn from Pliny; who
+adds, that it will be readily conjectured, from their respective
+characters, that it was the farm of Scævola which stood in need of the
+villa, and the villa of Lucullus which required the farm.
+
+A vast variety of crops was cultivated by the Romans, and the different
+kinds were adapted by them, with great care, to the different soils. Cato
+is very particular in his injunctions on this subject. A field that is of
+a rich and genial soil should be sown with corn; but, if wet or moist,
+with turnips and raddish. Figs are to be planted in chalky land; and
+willows in watery situations, in order to serve as twigs for tying the
+vines. This being the proper mode of laying out a farm, our author gives a
+detail of the establishment necessary to keep it up;—the number of
+workmen, the implements of husbandry, and the farm-offices, with the
+materials necessary for their construction.
+
+He next treats of the management of vineyards and olives; the proper mode
+of planting, grafting, propping, and fencing: And he is here naturally led
+to furnish directions for making and preserving the different sorts of
+wine and oil; as also to specify how much of each is to be allowed to the
+servants of the family.
+
+In discoursing of the cultivation of fields for corn, Cato enjoins the
+farmer to collect all sorts of weeds for manure. Pigeons’ dung he prefers
+to that of every animal. He gives orders for burning lime, and for making
+charcoal and ashes from the branches or twigs of trees. The Romans seem to
+have been at great pains in draining their fields; and Cato directs the
+formation both of open and covered drains. Oxen being employed in
+ploughing the fields, instructions are added for feeding and taking due
+care of them. The Roman plough has been a subject of much discussion: Two
+sorts are mentioned by Cato, which he calls _Romanicum_, and
+_Campanicum_—the first being proper for a stiff, and the other for a light
+soil. Dickson conjectures, that the _Romanicum_ had an iron Share, and the
+_Campanicum_ a piece of timber, like the Scotch plough, and a sock driven
+upon it. The plough, with other agricultural implements, as the _crates_,
+_rastrum_, _ligo_, and _sarculum_, most of which are mentioned by Cato,
+form a curious point of Roman antiquities.
+
+The preservation of corn, after it has been reaped, is a subject of much
+importance, to which Cato has paid particular attention. This was a matter
+of considerable difficulty in Italy, in the time of the Romans; and all
+their agricultural writers are extremely minute in their directions for
+preserving it from rot, and from the depredations of insects, by which it
+was frequently consumed.
+
+A great part of the work of Cato is more appropriate to the housewife than
+the farmer. We have receipts for making all sorts of cakes and puddings,
+fattening hens and geese, preserving figs during winter; as also medical
+prescriptions for the cure of various diseases, both of man and beast.
+_Mala punica_, or pomegranates, are the chief ingredient, in his remedies,
+for Diarrhœa, Dyspepsia, and Stranguary. Sometimes, however, his cures for
+diseases are not medical recipes, but sacrifices, atonements, or charms.
+The prime of all is his remedy for a luxation or fracture.—“Take,” says
+he, “a green reed, and slit it along the middle—throw the knife upwards,
+and join the two parts of the reed again, and tie it so to the place
+broken or disjointed, and say this charm—‘Daries, Dardaries, Astataries,
+Dissunapiter.’ Or this—‘Huat, Hanat, Huat, Ista, Pista, Fista, Domiabo,
+Damnaustra.’ This will make the part sound again(18).”
+
+The most remarkable feature in the work of Cato, is its total want of
+arrangement. It is divided, indeed, into chapters, but the author,
+apparently, had never taken the trouble of reducing his precepts to any
+sort of method, or of following any general plan. The hundred and
+sixty-two chapters, of which his work consists, seem so many rules
+committed to writing, as the daily labours of the field suggested. He
+gives directions about the vineyard, then goes to his corn-fields, and
+returns again to the vineyard. His treatise was, therefore, evidently not
+intended as a regular or well-composed book, but merely as a journal of
+incidental observations. That this was its utmost pretensions, is farther
+evinced by the brevity of the precepts, and deficiency of all illustration
+or embellishment. Of the style, he of course would be little careful, as
+his _Memoranda_ were intended for the use only of his family and slaves.
+It is therefore always simple,—sometimes even rude; but it is not ill
+adapted to the subject, and suits our notion of the severe manners of its
+author, and character of the ancient Romans.
+
+Besides this book on agriculture, Cato left behind him various works,
+which have almost entirely perished. He left a hundred and fifty
+orations(19), which were existing in the time of Cicero, though almost
+entirely neglected, and a book on military discipline(20), both of which,
+if now extant, would be highly interesting, as proceeding from one who was
+equally distinguished in the camp and forum. A good many of his orations
+were in dissuasion or favour of particular laws and measures of state, as
+those entitled—“Ne quis iterum Consul fiat—De bello Carthaginiensi,” of
+which war he was a vehement promoter—“Suasio in Legem Voconiam,—Pro Lege
+Oppia,” &c. Nearly a third part of these orations were pronounced in his
+own defence. He had been about fifty times accused(21), and as often
+acquitted. When charged with a capital crime, in the 85th year of his age,
+he pleaded his own cause, and betrayed no failure in memory, no decline of
+vigour, and no faltering of voice(22). By his readiness, and pertinacity,
+and bitterness, he completely wore out his adversaries(23), and earned the
+reputation of being, if not the most eloquent, at least the most stubborn
+speaker among the Romans.
+
+Cato’s oration in favour of the Oppian law, which was a sumptuary
+restriction on the expensive dresses of the Roman matrons, is given by
+Livy(24). It was delivered in opposition to the tribune Valerius, who
+proposed its abrogation, and affords us some notion of his style and
+manner, since, if not copied by the historian from his book of orations,
+it was doubtless adapted by him to the character of Cato, and his mode of
+speaking. Aulus Gellius cites, as equally distinguished for its eloquence
+and energy, a passage in his speech on the division of spoil among the
+soldiery, in which he complains of their unpunished peculation and
+licentiousness. One of his most celebrated harangues was that in favour of
+the Rhodians, the ancient allies of the Roman people, who had fallen under
+the suspicion of affording aid to Perseus, during the second Macedonian
+war. The oration was delivered after the overthrow of that monarch, when
+the Rhodian envoys were introduced into the Senate, in order to explain
+the conduct of their countrymen, and to deprecate the vengeance of the
+Romans, by throwing the odium of their apparent hostility on the
+turbulence of a few factious individuals. It was pronounced in answer to
+those Senators, who, after hearing the supplications of the Rhodians, were
+for declaring war against them; and it turned chiefly on the ancient,
+long-tried fidelity of that people,—taking particular advantage of the
+circumstance, that the assistance rendered to Perseus had not been a
+national act, proceeding from a public decree of the people. Tiro, the
+freedman of Cicero, wrote a long and elaborate criticism on this oration.
+To the numerous censures it contains, Aulus Gellius has replied at
+considerable length, and has blamed Tiro for singling out from a speech so
+rich, and so happily connected, small and insulated portions, as objects
+of his reprehensive satire. All the various topics, he adds, which are
+enlarged on in this oration, if they could have been introduced with more
+perspicuity, method, and harmony, could not have been delivered with more
+energy and strength(25).
+
+Both Cicero and Livy have expressed themselves very fully on the subject
+of Cato’s orations. The former admits, that his “language is antiquated,
+and some of his phrases harsh and inelegant: but only change that,” he
+continues, “which it was not in his power to change—add number and
+cadence—give an easier turn to his sentences—and regulate the structure
+and connection of his words, (an art which was as little practised by the
+older Greeks as by him,) and you will find no one who can claim the
+preference to Cato. The Greeks themselves acknowledge, that the chief
+beauty of composition results from the frequent use of those forms of
+expression, which they call tropes, and of those varieties of language and
+sentiment, which they call figures; but it is almost incredible with what
+copiousness, and with what variety, they are all employed by Cato(26).”
+Livy principally speaks of the facility, asperity, and freedom of his
+tongue(27). Aulus Gellius has instituted a comparison of Caius Gracchus,
+Cato, and Cicero, in passages where these three orators declaimed against
+the same species of atrocity—the illegal scourging of Roman citizens; and
+Gellius, though he admits that Cato had not reached the splendour,
+harmony, and pathos of Cicero, considers him as far superior in force and
+copiousness to Gracchus(28).
+
+Of the book on Military Discipline, a good deal has been incorporated into
+the work of Vegetius; and Cicero’s orations may console us for the want of
+those of Cato. But the loss of the seven books, _De Originibus_, which he
+commenced in his vigorous old age, and finished just before his death,
+must ever be deeply deplored by the historian and antiquary. Cato is said
+to have begun to inquire into the history, antiquities, and language of
+the Roman people, with a view to counteract the influence of the Greek
+taste, introduced by the Scipios; and in order to take from the Greeks the
+honour of having colonized Italy, he attempted to discover on the Latin
+soil the traces of ancient national manners, and an indigenous
+civilization. The first book of the valuable work _De Originibus_, as we
+are informed by Cornelius Nepos, in his short life of Cato, contained the
+exploits of the kings of Rome. Cato was the first author who attempted to
+fix the era of the foundation of Rome, which he calculated in his
+_Origines_, and determined it to have been in the first year of the 7th
+Olympiad. In order to discover this epoch, he had recourse to the memoirs
+of the Censors, in which it was noted, that the taking of Rome by the
+Gauls, was 119 years after the expulsion of the kings. By adding this
+period to the aggregate duration of the reigns of the kings, he found that
+the amount answered to the first of the 7th Olympiad. This is the
+computation followed by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in his great work on
+Roman antiquities. It is probably as near the truth as we can hope to
+arrive; but even in the time of Cato, the calculated duration of the
+reigns of the kings was not founded on any ancient monuments then extant,
+or on the testimony of any credible historian. The second and third books
+treated of the origin of the different states of Italy, whence the whole
+work has received the name of _Origines_. The fourth and fifth books
+comprehended the history of the first and second Punic wars; and in the
+two remaining books, the author discussed the other campaigns of the
+Romans till the time of Ser. Galba, who overthrew the Lusitanians.
+
+In his account of these later contests, Cato merely related the facts,
+without mentioning the names of the generals or leaders; but though he has
+omitted this, Pliny informs us that he did not forget to take notice, that
+the elephant which fought most stoutly in the Carthaginian army was called
+Surus, and wanted one of his teeth(29). In this same work he incidentally
+treated of all the wonderful and admirable things which existed in Spain
+and Italy. Some of his orations, too, as we learn from Livy, were
+incorporated into it, as that for giving freedom to the Lusitanian
+hostages; and Plutarch farther mentions, that he omitted no opportunity of
+praising himself, and extolling his services to the state. The work,
+however, exhibited great industry and learning, and, had it descended to
+us, would unquestionably have thrown much light on the early periods of
+Roman history and the antiquities of the different states of Italy.
+Dionysius of Halicarnassus, himself a sedulous inquirer into antiquities,
+bears ample testimony to the research and accuracy of that part which
+treats of the origin of the ancient Italian cities. The author lived at a
+time which was favourable to this investigation. Though the Samnites,
+Etruscans, and Sabines, had been deprived of their independence, they had
+not lost their monuments or records of their history, their individuality
+and national manners. Cicero praises the simple and concise style of the
+_Origines_, and laments that the work was neglected in his day, in
+consequence of the inflated manner of writing which had been recently
+adopted; in the same manner as the tumid and ornamented periods of
+Theopompus had lessened the esteem for the concise and unadorned narrative
+of Thucydides, or as the lofty eloquence of Demosthenes impaired the
+relish for the extreme attic simplicity of Lysias(30).
+
+In the same part of the dialogue, entitled _Brutus_, Cicero asks what
+flower or light of eloquence is wanting to the _Origines_—“Quem florem,
+aut quod lumen eloquentiæ non habent?” But on Atticus considering the
+praise thus bestowed as excessive, he limits it, by adding, that nothing
+was required to complete the strokes of the author’s pencil but a certain
+lively glow of colours, which had not been discovered in his
+age.—“Intelliges, nihil illius lineamentis, nisi eorum pigmentorum, quæ
+inventa nondum erant, florem et calorem defuisse(31).”
+
+The pretended fragments of the _Origines_, published by the Dominican,
+Nanni, better known by the name of Annius Viterbiensis, and inserted in
+his _Antiquitates Variæ_, printed at Rome in 1498, are spurious, and the
+imposition was detected soon after their appearance. The few remains first
+collected by Riccobonus, and published at the end of his Treatise on
+History, (Basil, 1579,) are believed to be genuine. They have been
+enlarged by Ausonius Popma, and added by him, with notes, to the other
+writings of Cato, published at Leyden in 1590.
+
+Any rudeness of style and language which appears either in the orations of
+Cato, or in his agricultural and historical works, cannot be attributed to
+total carelessness or neglect of the graces of composition, as he was the
+first person in Rome who treated of oratory as an art(32), in a tract
+entitled _De Oratore ad Filium_.
+
+Cato was also the first of his countrymen who wrote on the subject of
+medicine(33). Rome had existed for 500 years without professional
+physicians(34). A people who as yet were strangers to luxury, and
+consisted of farmers and soldiers, (though surgical operations might be
+frequently necessary,) would be exempt from the inroads of the “grisly
+troop,” so much encouraged by indolence and debauchery. Like all
+semi-barbarous people, they believed that maladies were to be cured by the
+special interposition of superior beings, and that religious ceremonies
+were more efficacious for the recovery of health than remedies of medical
+skill. Deriving, as they did, much of their worship from the Etruscans,
+they probably derived from them also the practice of attempting to
+overcome disease by magic and incantation. The Augurs and Aruspices were
+thus the most ancient physicians of Rome. In epidemic distempers the
+Sibylline books were consulted, and the cures they prescribed were
+superstitious ceremonies. We have seen that it was to free the city from
+an attack of this sort that scenic representations were first introduced
+at Rome. During the progress of another epidemic infliction a temple was
+built to Apollo(35); and as each periodic pestilence naturally abated in
+course of time, faith was confirmed in the efficacy of the rites which
+were resorted to. Every one has heard of the pomp wherewith Esculapius was
+transported under the form of a serpent, from Epidaurus to an islet in the
+Tiber, which was thereafter consecrated to that divine physician. The
+apprehension of diseases raised temples to Febris and Tussis, and other
+imaginary beings belonging to the painful family of death in order to
+avert the disorders which they were supposed to inflict. It was perceived,
+however, that religious professions and lustrations and _lectisterniums_
+were ineffectual for the cure of those complaints, which, in the 6th
+century, luxury began to exasperate and render more frequent at Rome. At
+length, in 534, Archagatus, a free-born Greek, arrived in Italy, where he
+practised medicine professionally as an art, and received in return for
+his cures the endearing appellation of _Carnifex_(36). But though
+Archagatus was the first who practised medicine, Cato was the first who
+wrote of diseases and their treatment as a science, in his work entitled
+_Commentarius quo Medetur Filio, Servis, Familiaribus_. In this book of
+domestic medicine—duck, pigeons, and hare, were the foods he chiefly
+recommended to the sick(37). His remedies were principally extracted from
+herbs; and colewort, or cabbage, was his favourite cure(38). The recipes,
+indeed, contained in his work on agriculture, show that his medical
+knowledge did not exceed that which usually exists among a semi-barbarous
+race, and only extended to the most ordinary simples which nature affords.
+Cato hated the compound drugs introduced by the Greek
+physicians—considering these foreign professors of medicine as the
+opponents of his own system. Such, indeed, was his antipathy, that he
+believed, or pretended to believe, that they had entered into a league to
+poison all the barbarians, among whom they classed the Romans.—“Jurarunt
+inter se,” says he, in a passage preserved by Pliny, “barbaros necare
+omnes medicina: Et hoc ipsum mercede faciunt, ut fides iis sit, et facile
+disperdant(39).” Cato, finding that the patients lived notwithstanding
+this detestable conspiracy, began to regard the Greek practitioners as
+impious sorcerers, who counteracted the course of nature, and restored
+dying men to life, by means of unholy charms; and he therefore advised his
+countrymen to remain stedfast, not only by their ancient Roman principles
+and manners, but also by the venerable unguents and salubrious balsams
+which had come down to them from the wisdom of their grandmothers. Such as
+they were, Cato’s old medical saws continued long in repute at Rome. It is
+evident that they were still esteemed in the time of Pliny, who expresses
+the same fears as the Censor, lest hot baths and potions should render his
+countrymen effeminate, and corrupt their manners(40).
+
+Every one knows what was the consequence of Cato’s dislike to the Greek
+philosophers, who were expelled from the city by a decree of the senate.
+But it does not seem certain what became of Archagatus and his followers.
+The author of the _Diogene Moderne_, as cited by Tiraboschi, says that
+Archagatus was stoned to death(41), but the literary historian who quotes
+him doubts of his having any sufficient authority for the assertion.
+Whether the physicians were comprehended in the general sentence of
+banishment pronounced on the learned Greeks, or were excepted from it, has
+been the subject of a great literary controversy in modern Italy and in
+France(42).
+
+Aulus Gellius(43) mentions Cato’s _Libri quæstionum Epistolicarum_, and
+Cicero his _Apophthegmata_(44), which was probably the first example of
+that class of works which, under the appellation of _Ana_, became so
+fashionable and prevalent in France.
+
+The only other work of Cato which I shall mention, is the _Carmen de
+Moribus_. This, however, was not written in verse, as might be supposed
+from the title. Precepts, imprecations, and prayers, or any set _formulæ_
+whatever, were called _Carmina_. I do not know what maxims were inculcated
+in this _carmen_, but they probably were not of very rigid morality, at
+least if we may judge from the “Sententia Dia Catonis,” mentioned by
+Horace:
+
+  “Quidam notus homo cùm exiret fornice, Macte
+  Virtute esto, inquit sententia dia Catonis(45).”
+
+Misled by the title, some critics have erroneously assigned to the Censor
+the _Disticha de Moribus_, now generally attributed to Dionysius Cato, who
+lived, according to Scaliger in the age of Commodus and Septimius
+Severus(46).
+
+The work of
+
+
+
+
+
+                         MARCUS TERENTIUS VARRO,
+
+
+On agriculture, has descended to us more entire than that of Cato on the
+same subject; yet it does not appear to be complete. In the early times of
+the republic, the Romans, like the ancient Greeks, being constantly
+menaced with the incursions of enemies, indulged little in the luxury of
+expensive and ornamental villas. Even that of Scipio Africanus, the rival
+and contemporary of Cato the Censor, and who in many other respects
+anticipated the refinements of a later age, was of the simplest structure.
+It was situated at Liternum, (now Patria,) a few miles north from Cumæ,
+and was standing in the time of Seneca. This philosopher paid a visit to a
+friend who resided in it during the age of Nero, and he afterwards
+described it in one of his epistles with many expressions of wonder and
+admiration at the frugality of the great Africanus(47). When, however, the
+scourge of war was removed from their immediate vicinity, agriculture and
+gardening were no longer exercised by the Romans as in the days of the
+Censor, when great crops of grain were raised for profit, and fields of
+onions sown for the subsistence of the labouring servants. The patricians
+now became fond of ornamental gardens, fountains, terraces, artificial
+wildernesses, and grottos, groves of laurel for shelter in winter, and
+oriental planes for shade in summer. Matters, in short, were fast
+approaching to the state described in one of the odes of Horace—
+
+  “Jam pauca aratro jugera regiæ,
+  Moles relinquent: undique latius
+    Extenta visentur Lucrino
+      Stagna lacu: platanusque cœlebs
+  Evincet ulmos: tum violaria, et
+  Myrtus, et omnis copia narium,
+    Spargent olivetis odorem
+      Fertilibus domino priori.
+  Tum spissa ramis laurea fervidos
+  Excludet ictus. Non ita Romuli
+    Præscriptum, et intonsi Catonis
+      Auspiciis, veterumque norma(48).”
+
+Agriculture, however, still continued to be so respectable an employment,
+that its practice was not considered unworthy the friend of Cicero and
+Pompey, nor its precepts undeserving to be delivered by one who was
+indisputably the first scholar of his age—who was renowned for his
+profound erudition and thorough insight into the laws, the literature, and
+antiquities of his country,—and who has been hailed by Petrarch as the
+third great luminary of Rome, being only inferior in lustre to Cicero and
+Virgil:—
+
+  “Qui’ vid’ io nostra gente aver per duce
+  Varrone, il terzo gran lume Romano,
+  Che quanto ’l miro più, tanto più luce(49).”
+
+Varro was born in the 637th year of Rome, and was descended of an ancient
+senatorial family. It is probable that his youth, and even the greater
+part of his manhood, were spent in literary pursuits, and in the
+acquisition of that stupendous knowledge, which has procured to him the
+appellation of the most learned of the Romans, since his name does not
+appear in the civil or military history of his country, till the year 680,
+when he was Consul along with Cassius Varus. In 686, he served under
+Pompey, in his war against the pirates, in which he commanded the Greek
+ships(50). To the fortunes of that Chief he continued firmly attached, and
+was appointed one of his lieutenants in Spain, along with Afranius and
+Petreius, at the commencement of the war with Cæsar. Hispania Ulterior was
+specially confided to his protection, and two legions were placed under
+his command. After the surrender of his colleagues in Hither Spain, Cæsar
+proceeded in person against him. Varro appears to have been little
+qualified to cope with such an adversary. One of the legions deserted in
+his own sight, and his retreat to Cadiz, where he had meant to retire,
+having been cut off, he surrendered at discretion, with the other, in the
+vicinity of Cordova(51). From that period he despaired of the salvation of
+the republic, or found, at least, that he was not capable of saving it;
+for although, after receiving his freedom from Cæsar, he proceeded to
+Dyracchium, to give Pompey a detail of the disasters which had occurred,
+he left it almost immediately for Rome. On his return to Italy he withdrew
+from all political concerns, and indulged himself during the remainder of
+his life in the enjoyment of literary leisure. The only service he
+performed for Cæsar, was that of arranging the books which the Dictator
+had himself procured, or which had been acquired by those who preceded him
+in the management of public affairs(52). He lived during the reign of
+Cæsar in habits of the closest intimacy with Cicero; and his feelings, as
+well as conduct, at this period, resembled those of his illustrious
+friend, who, in all his letters to Varro, bewails, with great freedom, the
+utter ruin of the state, and proposes that they should live together,
+engaged only in those studies which were formerly their amusement, but
+were then their chief support. “And, should none require our services for
+repairing the ruins of the republic, let us employ our time and thoughts
+on moral and political inquiries. If we cannot benefit the commonwealth in
+the forum or the senate, let us endeavour, at least, to do so by our
+studies and writings; and, after the example of the most learned among the
+ancients, contribute to the welfare of our country, by useful
+disquisitions concerning laws and government.” Some farther notion of the
+manner in which Varro spent his time during this period may be derived
+from another letter of Cicero, written in June, 707. “Nothing,” says he,
+“raises your character higher in my esteem, than that you have wisely
+retreated into harbour—that you are enjoying the happy fruits of a learned
+leisure, and employed in pursuits, which are attended with more public
+advantage, as well as private satisfaction, than all the ambitious
+exploits, or voluptuous indulgences, of these licentious victors. The
+contemplative hours you spend at your Tusculan villa, are, in my
+estimation, indeed, what alone deserves to be called life(53).”
+
+Varro passed the greatest portion of his time in the various villas which
+he possessed in Italy. One of these was at Tusculum, and another in the
+neighbourhood of Cumæ. The latter place had been among the earliest Greek
+establishments in Italy, and was long regarded as pre-eminent in power and
+population. It spread prosperity over the adjacent coasts; and its oracle,
+Sibyl, and temple, long attracted votaries and visitants. As the Roman
+power increased, that of Cumæ decayed; and its opulence had greatly
+declined before the time of Varro. Its immediate vicinity was not even
+frequently selected as a situation for villas. The Romans had a
+well-founded partiality for the coasts of Puteoli, and Naples, so superior
+in beauty and salubrity to the flat, marshy neighbourhood of Cumæ. The
+situation of Varro’s other villa, at Tusculum, must have been infinitely
+more agreeable, from its pure air, and the commanding prospect it enjoyed.
+
+Besides immense flocks of sheep in Apulia, and many horses in the Sabine
+district of Reate(54), Varro had considerable farms both at his Cuman and
+Tusculan villas, the cultivation of which, no doubt, formed an agreeable
+relaxation from his severe and sedentary studies. He had also a farm at a
+third villa, where he occasionally resided, near the town of Casinum, in
+the territory of the ancient Volsci(55), and situated on the banks of the
+Cassinus, a tributary stream to the Liris. This stream, which was
+fifty-seven feet broad, and both deep and clear, with a pebbly channel,
+flowed through the middle of his delightful domains. A bridge, which
+crossed the river from the house, led directly to an island, which was a
+little farther down, at the confluence of the Cassinus with a rivulet
+called the Vinius(56). Along the banks of the larger water there were
+spacious pleasure-walks which conducted to the farm; and near the place
+where they joined the fields, there was an extensive aviary(57). The site
+of Varro’s villa was visited by Sir R. C. Hoare, who says, that it stood
+close to Casinum, now St Germano: Some trifling remains still indicate its
+site; but its memory, he adds, will shortly survive only in the page of
+the historian(58).
+
+After the assassination of Cæsar, this residence, along with almost all
+the wealth of Varro, which was immense, was forcibly seized by Marc
+Antony(59). Its lawless occupation by that profligate and blood-thirsty
+triumvir, on his return from his dissolute expedition to Capua, is
+introduced by Cicero into one of his Philippics, and forms a topic of the
+most eloquent and bitter invective. The contrast which the orator draws
+between the character of Varro and that of Antony—between the noble and
+peaceful studies prosecuted in that delightful residence by the rightful
+proprietor, and the shameful debaucheries of the wretch by whom it had
+been usurped, forms a picture, to which it would be difficult to find a
+parallel in ancient or modern oratory.—“How many days did you shamefully
+revel, Antony, in that villa? From the third hour, it was one continued
+scene of drinking, gambling, and uproar. The very roofs were to be pitied.
+O, what a change of masters! But how can he be called its master? And, if
+master—gods! how unlike to him he had dispossessed! Marcus Varro made his
+house the abode of the muses, and a retreat for study—not a haunt for
+midnight debauchery. Whilst he was there, what were the subjects
+discussed—what the topics debated in that delightful residence? I will
+answer the question—The rights and liberties of the Roman people—the
+memorials of our ancestors—the wisdom resulting from reason combined with
+knowledge. But whilst you, Antony, was its occupant, (for you cannot be
+called its master,) every room rung with the cry of drunkenness—the
+pavements were swimming with wine, and the walls wet with riot.”
+
+Antony was not a person to be satisfied with robbing Varro of his
+property. At the formation of the memorable triumvirate, the name of Varro
+appeared in the list of the proscribed, among those other friends of
+Pompey whom the clemency of Cæsar had spared. This illustrious and
+blameless individual had now passed the age of seventy; and nothing can
+afford a more frightful proof of the sanguinary spirit which guided the
+councils of the triumvirs, than their devoting to the dagger of the hired
+assassin a man equally venerable by his years and character, and who ought
+to have been protected, if not by his learned labours, at least by his
+retirement, from such inhuman persecution. But, though doomed to death as
+a friend of law and liberty, his friends contended with each other for the
+dangerous honour of saving him. Calenus having obtained the preference,
+carried him to his country-house, where Antony frequently came, without
+suspecting that it contained a proscribed inmate. Here Varro remained
+concealed till a special edict was issued by the consul, M. Plancus, under
+the triumviral seal, excepting him and Messala Corvinus from the general
+slaughter(60).
+
+But though Varro thus passed in security the hour of danger, he was unable
+to save his library, which was placed in the garden of one of his villas,
+and fell into the hands of an illiterate soldiery.
+
+After the battle of Actium, Varro resided in tranquillity at Rome till his
+decease, which happened in 727, when he was ninety years of age. The
+tragical deaths, however, of Pompey and Cicero, with the loss of others of
+his friends,—the ruin of his country,—the expulsion from his villas,—and
+the loss of those literary treasures, which he had stored up as the solace
+of his old age, and the want of which would be doubly felt by one who
+wished to devote all his time to study,—must have cast a deep shade over
+the concluding days of this illustrious scholar. His wealth was restored
+by Augustus, but his books could not be supplied.
+
+It is not improbable, that the dispersion of this library, which impeded
+the prosecution of his studies, and prevented the composition of such
+works as required reference and consultation, may have induced Varro to
+employ the remaining hours of his life in delivering those precepts of
+agriculture, which had been the result of long experience, and which
+needed only reminiscence to inculcate. It was some time after the loss of
+his books, and when he had nearly reached the age of eighty, that Varro
+composed the work on husbandry, as he himself testifies in the
+introduction. “If I had leisure, I might write these things more
+conveniently, which I will now explain as well as I am able, thinking that
+I must make haste; because, if a man be a bubble of air, much more so is
+an old man, for now my eightieth year admonishes me to get my baggage
+together before I leave the world. Wherefore, as you have bought a farm,
+which you are desirous to render profitable by tillage, and as you ask me
+to take this task upon me, I will try to advise you what must be done, not
+only during my stay here, but after my departure.” The remainder of the
+introduction forms, in its ostentatious display of erudition, a remarkable
+contrast to Cato’s simplicity. Varro talks of the Syrens and
+Sibyls,—invokes all the Roman deities, supposed to preside over rural
+affairs,—and enumerates all the Greek authors who had written on the
+subject of agriculture previous to his own time.
+
+The first of the three books which this agricultural treatise comprehends,
+is addressed, by Varro, to Fundanius, who had recently purchased a farm,
+in the management of which he wished to be instructed. The information
+which Varro undertakes to give, is communicated in the form of dialogue.
+He feigns that, at the time appointed for rites to be performed in the
+sowing season, (_sementivis feriis_,) he went, by invitation of the
+priest, to the temple of Tellus. There he met his father-in-law, C.
+Fundanius, the knight Agrius, and Agrasius, a farmer of imposts, who were
+gazing on a map of Italy, painted on the inner walls of the temple. The
+priest, whose duty it was to officiate, having been summoned by the ædile
+to attend him on affairs of importance, they were awaiting his return;
+and, in order to pass the time till his arrival, Agrasius commences a
+conversation, (suggested by the map of Italy,) by inquiring at the others
+present in the temple, whether they, who had travelled so much, had ever
+visited any country better cultivated than Italy. This introduces an
+eulogy on the soil and climate of that favoured region, and of its various
+abundant productions,—the Apulian wheat, the Venafrian olive, and the
+Falernian grape. All this, again, leads to the inquiry, by what arts of
+agricultural skill and industry, aiding the luxuriant soil, it had reached
+such unexampled fecundity. These questions are referred to Licinius Stolo,
+and Tremellius Scrofa, who now joined the party, and who were well
+qualified to throw light on the interesting discussion—the first being of
+a family distinguished by the pains it had taken with regard to the
+Agrarian laws, and the second being well known for possessing one of the
+best cultivated farms in Italy. Scrofa, too, had himself written on
+husbandry, as we learn from Columella; who says, that he had first
+rendered agriculture eloquent. This first book of Varro is accordingly
+devoted to rules for the cultivation of land, whether for the production
+of grain, pulse, olives, or vines, and the establishment necessary for a
+well-managed and lucrative farm; excluding from consideration what is
+strictly the business of the grazier and shepherd, rather than of the
+farmer.
+
+After some general observations on the object and end of agriculture, and
+the exposition of some general principles with regard to soil and climate,
+Scrofa and Stolo, who are the chief prolocutors, proceed to settle the
+size, as also the situation of the villa. They recommend that it should be
+placed at the foot of a well-wooded hill, and open to the most healthful
+breeze. An eastern exposure seems to be preferred, as it will thus have
+shade in summer, and sun in winter. They farther advise, that it should
+not be placed in a hollow valley, as being there subject to storms and
+inundations; nor in front of a river, as that situation is cold in winter,
+and unwholesome in summer; nor in the vicinity of a marsh, where it would
+be liable to be infested with small insects, which, though invisible,
+enter the body by the mouth or nostrils, and occasion obstinate diseases.
+Fundanius asks, what one ought to do who happens to inherit such a villa;
+and is answered, that he should sell it for whatever sum it may bring; and
+if it will bring nothing, he should abandon it. After this follow the
+subjects of enclosure—the necessary implements of husbandry—the number of
+servants and oxen required—and the soil in which different crops should be
+sown. We have then a sort of calendar, directing what operations ought to
+be performed in each season of the year. Thus, the author recommends
+draining betwixt the winter solstice and approach of the zephyrs, which
+was reckoned to be about the beginning of February. The sowing of grain
+should not be commenced before the autumnal equinox, nor delayed after the
+winter solstice; because the seeds which are sown previous to the equinox
+spring up too quickly, and those sown subsequent to the solstice scarcely
+appear above ground in forty days. A taste for flowers had begun to
+prevail at Rome in the time of Varro; he accordingly recommends their
+cultivation, and points out the seasons for planting the lily, violet and
+crocus.
+
+The remainder of the first book of Varro is well and naturally arranged.
+He considers his subject from the choice of the seed, till the grain has
+sprung up, ripened, been reaped, secured, and brought to market. The same
+course is followed in treating of the vine and the olive. While on the
+subject of selling farm-produce to the best advantage, the conversation is
+suddenly interrupted by the arrival of the priest’s freedman, who came in
+haste to apologize to the guests for having been so long detained, and to
+ask them to attend on the following day at the obsequies of his master,
+who had been just assassinated on the public street by an unknown hand.
+The party in the temple immediately separate.—“De casu humano magis
+querentes, quam admirantes id Romæ factum.”
+
+The subject of agriculture, strictly so called, having been discussed in
+the first book, Varro proceeds in the second, addressed to Niger Turranus,
+to treat of the care of flocks and cattle, (_De Re Pecuaria_). The
+knowledge which he here communicates is the result of his own
+observations, blended with the information he had received from the great
+pasturers of Epirus, at the time when he commanded the Grecian ships on
+its coast, in Pompey’s naval war with the pirates. As in the former book,
+the instruction is delivered in the shape of dialogue. Varro being at the
+house of a person called Cossinius, his host refuses to let him depart
+till he explain to him the origin, the dignity, and the art of pasturage.
+Our author undertakes to satisfy him as to the first and second points,
+but as to the third, he refers him to Scrofa, another of the guests, who
+had the management of extensive sheep-walks in the territory of the
+Brutii. Varro makes but a pedantic figure in the part which he has
+modestly taken to himself. His account of the origin of pasturage is
+nothing but some very common-place observations on the early stages of
+society; and its dignity is proved from several signs of the zodiac being
+called after animals, as also some of the most celebrated spots on the
+globe,—Mount Taurus, the Bosphorus, the Ægean sea, and Italy, which Varro
+derives from Vitulus. Scrofa, in commencing his part of the dialogue,
+divides the animals concerning which he is to treat into three classes: 1.
+the lesser; of which there are three sorts—sheep, goats, and swine; 2. the
+larger; of which there are also three—oxen, asses, and horses; and,
+lastly, those which do not themselves bring profit, but are essential to
+the care of the others—the dog, the mule, and the shepherd. With regard to
+all animals, four things are to be considered in purchasing or procuring
+them—their age, shape, pedigree, and price. After they have been
+purchased, there are other four things to be attended to—feeding,
+breeding, rearing, and curing distempers. According to this methodical
+division of the subject, Scrofa proceeds to give rules for choosing the
+best of the different species of animals which he has enumerated, as also
+directions for tending them after they have been bought, and turning them
+to the best profit. It is curious to hear what were considered the good
+points of a goat, a hog, or a horse, in the days of Pompey and Cæsar; in
+what regions they were produced in greatest size and perfection; what was
+esteemed the most nutritive provender for each; and what number
+constituted an ordinary flock or herd. The qualities specified as best in
+an ox may perhaps astonish a modern grazier; but it must be remembered,
+that they are applicable to the capacity for labour, not of carrying beef.
+Hogs were fed by the Romans on acorns, beans, and barley; and, like our
+own, indulged freely in the luxury of mire, which, Varro says, is as
+refreshing to them as the bath to human creatures. The Romans, however,
+did not rear, as we do, a solitary ill-looking pig in a sty, but possessed
+great herds, sometimes amounting to the number of two or three hundred.
+
+From what the author records while treating of the pasturage of sheep, we
+learn that a similar practice prevailed in Italy, with that which at this
+day exists in Spain, in the management of the Merinos belonging to the
+Mêstà. Flocks of sheep, which pastured during the winter in Apulia, were
+driven to a great distance from that region, to pass the summer in
+Samnium; and mules were led from the champaign grounds of Rosea, at
+certain seasons, to the high Gurgurian mountains. With much valuable and
+curious information on all these various topics, there are interspersed a
+great many strange superstitions and fables, or what may be called vulgar
+errors, as that swine breathe by the ears instead of the mouth or
+nostrils—that when a wolf gets hold of a sow, the first thing he does is
+to plunge it into cold water, as his teeth cannot otherwise bear the heat
+of the flesh—that on the shore of Lusitania, mares conceive from the
+winds, but their foals do not live above three years—and what is more
+inexplicable, one of the speakers in the dialogue asserts, that he himself
+had seen a sow in Arcadia so fat, that a field-mouse had made a
+comfortable nest in her flesh, and brought forth its young.
+
+This book concludes with what forms the most profitable part of
+pasturage—the dairy and sheep-shearing.
+
+The third book, which is by far the most interesting and best written in
+the work, treats _de villicis pastionibus_, which means the provisions, or
+moderate luxuries, which a plain farmer may procure, independent of
+tillage or pasturage,—as the poultry of his barn-yard—the trouts in the
+stream, by which his farm is bounded—and the game, which he may enclose in
+parks, or chance to take on days of recreation. If others of the
+agricultural writers have been more minute with regard to the construction
+of the villa itself, it is to Varro we are chiefly indebted for what
+lights we have received concerning its appertenancies, as warrens,
+aviaries, and fish-ponds. The dialogue on these subjects is introduced in
+the following manner:—At the comitia, held for electing an Ædile, Varro
+and the Senator Axius, having given their votes for the candidate whom
+they mutually favoured, and wishing to be at his house to receive him on
+his return home, after all the suffrages had been taken, resolved to wait
+the issue in the shade of a _villa publica_. There they found Appius
+Claudius, the augur, whom Axius began to rally on the magnificence of his
+villa, at the extremity of the Campus Martius, which he contrasts with the
+profitable plainness of his own farm in the Reatine district. “Your
+sumptuous mansion,” says he, “is adorned with painting, sculpture, and
+carving; but to make amends for the want of these, I have all that is
+necessary to the cultivation of lands, and the feeding of cattle. In your
+splendid abode, there is no sign of the vicinity of arable lands, or
+vineyards. We find there neither ox nor horse—there is neither vintage in
+the cellars, nor corn in the granary. In what respect does this resemble
+the villa of your ancestors? A house cannot be called a farm or a villa,
+merely because it is built beyond the precincts of the city.” This polite
+remonstrance gives rise to a discussion with regard to the proper
+definition of a villa, and whether that appellation can be applied to a
+residence, where there is neither tillage nor pasturage. It seems to be at
+length agreed, that a mansion which is without these, and is merely
+ornamental, cannot be called a villa; but that it is properly so termed,
+though there be neither tillage nor pasturage, if fish-ponds,
+pigeon-houses, and bee-hives, be kept for the sake of profit; and it is
+discussed whether such villas, or agricultural farms, are most lucrative.
+
+Our author divides the _Villaticæ pastiones_ into poultry, game, and fish.
+Under the first class, he comprehends birds, such as thrushes, which are
+kept in aviaries, to be eaten, but not any birds of game. Rules and
+directions are given for their management, of the same sort with those
+concerning the animals mentioned in the preceding book. The aviaries in
+the Roman villas were wonderfully productive and profitable. A very
+particular account is given of the construction of an aviary. Varro
+himself had one at his farm, near Casinum, but it was intended more for
+pleasure and recreation than profit. The description he gives of it is
+very minute, but not very distinct. The pigeon-house is treated of
+separately from the aviary. As to the game, the instructions do not relate
+to field-sports, but to the mode of keeping wild animals in enclosures or
+warrens. In the more simple and moderate ages of the republic, these were
+merely hare or rabbit warrens of no great extent; but as wealth and luxury
+increased, they were enlarged to the size of 40 or 50 acres, and
+frequently contained within their limits goats, wild boars, and deer. The
+author even descends to instructions with regard to keeping and fattening
+snails and dormice. On the subject of fish he is extremely brief, because
+that was rather an article of expensive luxury than homely fare; and the
+candidate, besides, was now momentarily expected. Fish-ponds had increased
+in the same proportion as warrens, and in the age of Varro were often
+formed at vast expense. Instances are given of the great depth and extent
+of ponds belonging to the principal citizens, some of which had
+subterraneous communications with the sea, and others were supplied by
+rivers, which had been turned from their course. At this part of the
+dialogue, a shout and unusual bustle announced the success of the
+candidate whom Varro favoured: on hearing this tumult, the party gave up
+their agricultural disquisitions, and accompanied him in triumph to the
+Capitol.
+
+This work of Varro is totally different from that of Cato on the same
+subject, formerly mentioned. It is not a journal, but a book; and instead
+of the loose and unconnected manner in which the brief precepts of the
+Censor are delivered, it is composed on a plan not merely regular, but
+perhaps somewhat too stiff and formal. Its exact and methodical
+arrangement has particularly attracted the notice of Scaliger.—“Unicum
+Varronem inter Latinos habemus, libris tribus de Re Rustica, qui vere ac
+μεθοδικως philosophatus sit. Immo nullus est Græcorum qui tam bene, inter
+eos saltem qui ad nos pervenerunt(61).” Instead, too, of that directness
+and simplicity which never deviate from the plainest precepts of
+agriculture, the work of Varro is embellished and illustrated by much of
+the erudition which might be expected from the learning of its author, and
+of one acquainted with fifty Greek writers who had treated of the subject
+before him. “Cato, the famous Censor,” says Martyne, “writes like an
+ancient country gentleman of much experience: He abounds in short pithy
+sentences, intersperses his book with moral precepts, and was esteemed a
+sort of oracle. Varro writes more like a scholar than a man of much
+practice: He is fond of research into antiquity, and inquires into the
+etymology of the names of persons and things. Cato, too, speaks of a
+country life, and of farming, merely as it may be conducive to gain. Varro
+also speaks of it as of a wise and happy state, inclining to justice,
+temperance, sincerity, and all the virtues, which shelters from evil
+passions, by affording that constant employment, which leaves little
+leisure for those vices which prevail in cities, where the means and
+occasions for them are created and supplied.”
+
+There were other Latin works on agriculture, besides those of Cato and
+Varro, but they were subsequent to the time which the present volumes are
+intended to embrace. Strictly speaking, indeed, even the work of Varro was
+written after the battle of Actium: the knowledge, however, on which its
+precepts were founded, was acquired long before. The style, too, is that
+of the Roman republic, not of the Augustan age. I have therefore
+considered Varro as belonging to the period on which we are at present
+engaged.
+
+Indeed, the history of his life and writings is almost identified with the
+literary history of Rome, during the long period through which his
+existence was protracted. But the treatise on agriculture is the only one
+of his multifarious works which has descended to us entire. The other
+writings of this celebrated polygraph, as Cicero calls him(62), may be
+divided into philological, critical, historical, mythological,
+philosophic, and satiric; and, after all, it would probably be necessary,
+in order to form a complete catalogue, to add the convenient and
+comprehensive class of miscellaneous.
+
+The work _De Lingua Latina_, though it has descended to us incomplete, is
+by much the most entire of Varro’s writings, except the Treatise on
+Agriculture. It is on account of this philological production, that Aulus
+Gellius ranks him among the grammarians, who form a numerous and important
+class in the History of Latin Literature. They were called _grammatici_ by
+the Romans—a word which would be better rendered philologers than
+grammarians. The grammatic science, among the Romans, was not confined to
+the inflections of words or rules of syntax. It formed one of the great
+divisions of the art of criticism, and was understood to comprehend all
+those different inquiries which philology includes—embracing not only
+grammar, properly so called, but verbal and literal criticism, etymology,
+the explication and just interpretation of authors, and emendation of
+corrupted passages. Indeed the name of grammarian (grammaticus) is
+frequently applied by ancient authors(63) to those whom we should now term
+critics and commentators, rather than grammarians.
+
+It will be readily conceived that a people, who, like the first Romans,
+were chiefly occupied with war, and whose relaxation was agriculture, did
+not attach much importance to a science, of which the professed object
+was, teaching how to speak and write with propriety. Accordingly, almost
+six hundred years elapsed before they formed any idea of such a study(64).
+Crates Mallotes, who was a contemporary of Aristarchus, and was sent as
+ambassador to Rome, by Attalus, King of Pergamus, towards the end of the
+sixth century(65), was the first who excited a taste for grammatical
+inquiries. Having accidentally broken his leg in the course of his
+embassy, he employed the period of his convalescence in receiving
+visitors, to whom he delivered lectures, containing grammatic
+disquisitions: and he also read and commented on poets hitherto unknown in
+Rome(66). These discussions, however, probably turned solely on Greek
+words, and the interpretation of Greek authors. It is not likely that
+Crates had such a knowledge of the Latin tongue, as to give lectures on a
+subject which requires minute and extensive acquaintance with the
+language. His instructions, however, had the effect of fixing the
+attention of the Romans on their own language, and on their infant
+literature. Men sprung up who commented on, and explained, the few Latin
+poems which at that time existed. C. Octavius Lampadius illustrated the
+Punic War of Nævius; and also divided that poem into seven books. About
+the same time, Q. Vargunteius lectured on the Annals of Ennius, on certain
+fixed days, to crowded audiences. Q. Philocomus soon afterwards performed
+a similar service for the Satires of his friend Lucilius. Among these
+early grammarians, Suetonius particularly mentions Ælius Preconinus and
+Servius Clodius. The former was the master of Varro and Cicero; he was
+also a rhetorician of eminence, and composed a number of orations for the
+Patricians, to whose cause he was so ardently attached, that, when
+Metellus Numidicus was banished in 654, he accompanied him into exile.
+Serv. Clodius was the son-in-law of Lælius, and fraudulently appropriated,
+it is said, a grammatical work, written by his distinguished relative,
+which shows the honour and credit by this time attached to such pursuits
+at Rome. Clodius was a Roman knight; and, from his example, men of rank
+did not disdain to write concerning grammar, and even to teach its
+principles. Still, however, the greater number of grammarians, at least of
+the verbal grammarians, were slaves. If well versed in the science, they
+brought, as we learn from Suetonius, exorbitant prices. Luctatius Daphnis
+was purchased by Quintus Catulus for 200,000 pieces of money, and shortly
+afterwards set at liberty. This was a strong encouragement for masters to
+instruct their slaves in grammar, and for them to acquire its rules.
+Sævius Nicanor, and Aurelius Opilius, who wrote a commentary, in nine
+books, on different writers, were freedmen, as was also Antonius Gnipho, a
+Gaul, who had been taught Greek at Alexandria, whither he was carried in
+his youth, and was subsequently instructed in Latin literature at Rome.
+Though a man of great learning in the science he professed, he left only
+two small volumes on the Latin language—his time having been principally
+occupied in teaching. He taught first in the house of the father of Julius
+Cæsar, and afterwards lectured at home to those who chose to attend him.
+The greatest men of Rome, when far advanced in age and dignity, did not
+disdain to frequent his school. Many of his precepts, indeed, extended to
+rhetoric and declamation, the arts, of all others, in which the Romans
+were most anxious to be initiated. These were now taught in the schools of
+almost all grammarians, of whom there were, at one time, upwards of twenty
+in Rome. For a long while, only the Greek poets were publicly explained,
+but at length the Latin poets were likewise commented on and illustrated.
+About the same period, the etymology of Latin words began to be
+investigated: Ælius Gallus, a jurisconsult quoted by Varro, wrote a work
+on the origin and proper signification of terms of jurisprudence, which in
+most languages remain unvaried, till they have become nearly
+unintelligible; and Ælius Stilo attempted, though not with perfect
+success, to explain the proper meaning of the words of the Salian verses,
+by ascertaining their derivations(67).
+
+The science of grammar and etymology was in this stage of progress and in
+this degree of repute at the time when Varro wrote his celebrated treatise
+_De Lingua Latina_. That work originally consisted of twenty-four
+books—the first three being dedicated to Publius Septimius, who had been
+his quæstor in the war with the pirates, and the remainder to Cicero. This
+last dedication, with that of Cicero’s _Academica_ to Varro, has rendered
+their friendship immortal. The importance attached to such dedications by
+the great men of Rome, and the value, in particular, placed by Cicero on a
+compliment of this nature from Varro, is established by a letter of the
+orator to Atticus—“You know,” says he, “that, till lately, I composed
+nothing but orations, or some such works, into which I could not introduce
+Varro’s name with propriety. Afterwards, when I engaged in a work of more
+general erudition, Varro informed me, that his intention was, to address
+to me a work of considerable extent and importance. Two years, however,
+have passed away without his making any progress. Meanwhile, I have been
+making preparations for returning him the compliment(68).” Again, “I am
+anxious to know how you came to be informed that a man like Varro, who has
+written so much, without addressing anything to me, should wish me to pay
+him a compliment(69).” The _Academica_ were dedicated to Varro before he
+fulfilled his promise of addressing a work to Cicero; and it appears, from
+Cicero’s letter to Varro, sent along with the _Academica_, how impatiently
+he expected its performance, and how much he importuned him for its
+execution.—“To exact the fulfilment of a promise,” says he, “is a sort of
+ill manners, of which the populace themselves are seldom guilty. I cannot,
+however, forbear—I will not say, to demand, but remind you, of a favour,
+which you long since gave me reason to expect. To this end, I have sent
+you four admonitors, (the four books of the Academica,) whom, perhaps, you
+will not consider as extremely modest(70).” It is curious, that, when
+Varro did at length come forth with his dedication, although he had been
+highly extolled in the _Academica_, he introduced not a single word of
+compliment to Cicero—whether it was that Varro dealt not in compliment,
+that he was disgusted with his friend’s insatiable appetite for praise, or
+that Cicero was considered as so exalted that he could not be elevated
+higher by panegyric.
+
+We find in the work _De Lingua Latina_, which was written during the
+winter preceding Cæsar’s death, the same methodical arrangement that marks
+the treatise _De Re Rustica_. The twenty-four books of which it consisted,
+were divided into three great parts. The first six books were devoted to
+etymological researches, or, as Varro himself expresses it, _quemadmodum
+vocabula essent imposita rebus in lingua Latina_. In the first, second,
+and third books, of this division of his work, all of which have perished,
+the author had brought forward what an admirer of etymological science
+could advance in its favour—what a depreciator might say against it; and
+what might be pronounced concerning it without enthusiasm or
+prejudice.—“Quæ contra eam dicentur, quæ pro ea, quæ de ea.” The fragments
+remaining of this great work of Varro, commence at the fourth book, which,
+with the two succeeding books, is occupied with the origin of Latin terms
+and the poetical licenses that have been taken in their use: He first
+considers the origin of the names of places, and of those things which are
+in them. His great division of places is, into heaven and earth—_Cœlum_ he
+derives from _cavum_, and that, from _chaos_; _terra_ is so called _quia
+teritur_. The derivation of the names of many terrestrial regions is
+equally whimsical. The most rational are those of the different spots in
+Rome, which are chiefly named after individuals, as the Tarpeian rock,
+from Tarpeia, a vestal virgin slain by the Sabines—the Cœlian Mount, from
+Cœlius, an Etrurian chief, who assisted Romulus in one of his contests
+with his neighbours. Following the same arrangement with regard to those
+things which _are in_ places, he first treats of the immortals, or gods of
+heaven and earth. Descending to mortal things, he treats of animals, whom
+he considers as in three places—air, water, and earth. The creatures
+inhabiting earth he divides into men, cattle, and wild beasts. Of the
+appellations proper to mankind, he speaks first of public honours, as the
+office of Prætor, who was so called, “quod præiret exercitui.” We have
+then the derivations both of the generic and special names of animals.
+Thus, _Armenta_ (quasi _aramenta_) is from _aro_, because oxen are used
+for ploughing; _Lepus_ is _quasi Levipes_. The remainder of the book is
+occupied with those words which relate to food, clothing, and various
+sorts of utensils. Of these, the derivation is given, and it is generally
+far-fetched. But of all his etymologies, the most whimsical is that
+contained in his book of Divine Things, where he deduces _fur_ from
+_furvus_, (dusky,) because thieves usually steal during the darkness of
+night(71).
+
+The fifth book relates to words expressive of time and its divisions, and
+to those things which are done in the course of time. He begins with the
+months and days consecrated to the service of the gods, or performance of
+accustomed rites. Things which happen during the lapse of time, are
+divided into three classes, according to the three great human functions
+of thought, speech, and act. The third class, or actions, are performed by
+means of the external senses; the mention of which introduces the
+explication of those terms which express the various operations of the
+senses; and the book terminates with a list of vocables derived from the
+Greek. These two books relate the common employment of words. In the
+sixth, the author treats of poetic words, and the poetic or metaphoric use
+of ordinary terms, of which he gives examples. Here he follows the same
+arrangement already adopted—speaking first of places, and then of time,
+and showing, as he proceeds, the manner in which poets have changed or
+corrupted the original signification of words.
+
+Such is the first division of the work of Varro, forming what he himself
+calls the etymological part. He admits that it was a subject of much
+difficulty and obscurity, since many original words had become obsolete in
+course of time, and of those which survived, the meaning had been changed
+or had never been imposed with exactness. The second division, which
+extended from the commencement of the seventh to the end of the twelfth
+book, comprehended the accidents of words, and the different changes which
+they undergo from declension, conjugation, and comparison. The author
+admits but of two kinds of words—nouns and verbs, to which he refers all
+the other parts of speech. He distinguishes two sorts of declensions, of
+which he calls one arbitrary, and the other natural or necessary; and he
+is thenceforth alternately occupied with analogy and anomaly. In the
+seventh book he discusses the subject of analogy in general, and gives the
+arguments which may be adduced against its existence in nouns proper: In
+the eighth, he reasons like those who find analogies everywhere. Book
+ninth treats of the analogy and anomaly of verbs, and with it the fragment
+we possess of Varro’s treatise terminates. The three other books, which
+completed the second part, were of course occupied with comparison and the
+various inflections of words.
+
+The third part of the work, which contained twelve books, treated of
+syntax, or the junction of words, so as to form a phrase or sentence. It
+also contained a sort of glossary, which explained the true meaning of
+Latin vocables.
+
+This, which may be considered as one of the chief works of Varro, was
+certainly a laborious and ingenious production; but the author is
+evidently too fond of deriving words from the ancient dialects of Italy,
+instead of recurring to the Greek, which, after the capture of Tarentum,
+became a great source of Latin terms. In general, the Romans, like the
+Greeks before them, have been very unfortunate in their etymologies, being
+but indifferent critics, and inadequately informed of everything that did
+not relate to their own country. Blackwell, in his _Court of Augustus_,
+while he admits that the sagacity of Varro is surprising in the use which
+he has made of the knowledge he possessed of the Sabine and Tuscan
+dialects, remarks, that his work, _De Lingua Latina_, is faulty in two
+particulars; the first, arising from the author having recourse to
+far-fetched allusions and metaphors in his own language, to illustrate his
+etymology of words, instead of going at once to the Greek. The second,
+proceeding from his ignorance of the eastern and northern languages,
+particularly the Aramean and Celtic(72); the former of which, in
+Blackwell’s opinion, had given names to the greater number of the gods,
+and the latter, to matters occurring in war and rustic life.
+
+It is not certain whether the _Libri De Similitudine Verborum_, and those
+_De Utilitate Sermonis_, cited by Priscian and Charisius as philological
+works of Varro, were parts of his great production, _De Lingua Latina_, or
+separate compositions. There was a distinct treatise, however, _De Sermone
+Latino_, addressed to Marcellus, of which a very few fragments are
+preserved by Aulus Gellius.
+
+The _critical_ works of this universal scholar, were entitled, _De
+Proprietate Scriptorum_—_De Poetis_—_De Poematis_—_Theatrales__, sive de
+Actionibus Scenicis_—_De Scenicis Originibus_—_De Plautinis Comœdiis_—_De
+Plautinis Quæstionibus_—_De Compositione Satirarum_—_Rhetoricorum Libri_.
+These works are praised or mentioned by Gellius, Nonius Marcellus, and
+Diomedes; but almost nothing is known of their contents.
+
+Somewhat more may be gathered concerning Varro’s _mythological_ or
+_theological_ works, as they were much studied, and very frequently cited
+by the early fathers, particularly St Augustine and Lactantius. Of these
+the chief is the treatise _De Cultu Deorum_, noticed by St Augustine in
+his seventh book, _De Civitate Dei_, where he says that Varro considers
+God to be not only the soul of the world, but the world itself. In this
+work he also treated of the origin of hydromancy, and other superstitious
+divinations. Sixteen books of the treatise _De Rerum Humanarum et
+Divinarum Antiquitatibus_, addressed to Julius Cæsar, as Pontifex Maximus,
+related to theological, or at least what we might call ecclesiastical
+subjects. He divides theology into three sorts—mythic, physical, and
+civil. The first is chiefly employed by poets, who have feigned many
+things contrary to the nature and dignity of the immortals, as that they
+sprung from the head, or thigh, or from drops of blood—that they committed
+thefts and impure actions, and were the servants of men. The second
+species of theology is that which we meet with in the books of
+philosophers, in which it is discussed, whether the gods have been from
+all eternity, and what is their essence, whether of fire, or numbers, or
+atoms. Civil, or the third kind of theology, relates to the institutions
+devised by men, for the worship of the Gods. The first sort is most
+appropriate to the stage; the second to the world; the third to the city.
+Varro was a zealous advocate for the physical explication of the
+mythological fables, to which he always had recourse, when pressed by the
+difficulties of their literal meaning(73). He also seems to have been of
+opinion that the images of the gods were originally intended to direct
+such as were acquainted with the secret doctrines, to the contemplation of
+the real gods, and of the immortal soul with its constituent parts(74).
+The first book of this work, as we learn from St Augustine, was
+introductory. The three following treated of the ministers of religion,
+the Pontiffs, Augurs, and Sibyls; in mentioning whom, he relates the
+well-known story of her who offered her volumes for sale to Tarquinius
+Priscus. In the next ternary of chapters, he discoursed concerning places
+appointed for religious worship, and the celebration of sacred rites. The
+third ternary related to holidays; the fourth to consecrations, and to
+private as well as public sacrifices; and the fifth contained an
+enumeration of all the deities who watch over man, from the moment when
+Janus opens to him the gates of life, till the dirges of Nænia conduct him
+to the tomb. The whole universe, he says, in conclusion, is divided into
+heaven and earth; the heavens, again, into æther and air; earth, into the
+ground and water. All these are full of souls, mortal in earth and water,
+but immortal in air and æther. Between the highest circle of heaven and
+the orbit of the moon, are the ethereal souls of the stars and planets,
+which are understood, and in fact seem, to be celestial deities; between
+the sphere of the moon and the highest region of tempests, dwell those
+aerial spirits, which are conceived by the mind though not seen by the
+eye—departed heroes, Lares, and Genii.
+
+This work, which is said to have chiefly contributed to the splendid
+reputation of Varro, was extant as late as the beginning of the fourteenth
+century. Petrarch, to whom the world has been under such infinite
+obligations for his ardent zeal in discovering the learned works of the
+Romans, had seen it in his youth. It continued ever after to be the object
+of his diligent search, and his bad success was a source to him of
+constant mortification. Of this we are informed in one of the letters,
+which that enthusiastic admirer of the ancients addressed to them as if
+they been alive, and his contemporaries. “Nullæ tamen exstant,” says he to
+Varro, “vel admodum laceræ, tuorum operum reliquiæ; licet divinarum et
+humanarum rerum libros, ex quibus sonantius nomen habes, puerum me vidisse
+meminerim, et recordatione torqueor, summis, ut aiunt, labiis gustatæ
+dulcedinis. Hos alicubi forsitan latitare suspicor, eaque, multos jam per
+annos, me fatigat cura, quoniam longâ quidem ac sollicitâ spe nihil est
+laboriosius in vitâ.”
+
+Plutarch, in his life of Romulus, speaks of Varro as a man of all the
+Romans most versed in history. The _historical_ and political works are
+the _Annales Libri_—_Belli Punici Secundi Liber_—_De Initiis Urbis
+Romanæ_—_De Gente Populi Romani_—_Libri de Familiis Trojanis_, which last
+treated of the families that followed Æneas into Italy. With this class we
+may rank the _Hebdomadum, sive de Imaginibus Libri_, containing the
+panegyrics of 700 illustrious men. There was a picture of each, with a
+legend or verse under it, like those in the children’s histories of the
+Kings of England. That annexed to the portrait of Demetrius Phalereus, who
+had upwards of 300 brazen statues erected to him by the Athenians, is
+still preserved:—
+
+  “Hic Demetrius æneis tot aptus est
+  Quot luces habet annus absolutus.”
+
+There were seven pictures and panegyrics in each book, whence the whole
+work has been called Hebdomades. Varro had adopted the superstitious
+notions of the ancients concerning particular numbers, and the number
+seven seems specially to have commanded his veneration. There were in the
+world seven wonders—there were seven wise men among the Greeks—there were
+seven chariots in the Circensian games—and seven chiefs were chosen to
+make war on Thebes: All which he sums up with remarking, that he himself
+had then entered his twelfth period of seven years, on which day he had
+written seventy times seven books, many of which, in consequence of his
+proscription, had been lost in the plunder of his library. It appears from
+Ausonius, that the tenth book of this work was occupied with pictures and
+panegyrics of distinguished architects, since, in his Eidyllium, entitled
+_Mosella_, he observes, that the buildings on the banks of that river
+would not have been despised by the most celebrated architects; and that
+those who planned them might well deserve a place in the tenth book of the
+Hebdomas of Varro:—
+
+  “Forsan et insignes hominumque operumque labores
+  Hic habuit decimo celebrata volumine Marci
+  Hebdomas.” ——
+
+It is evident, however, from one of the letters of Symmachus, addressed to
+his father, that though this was a professed work of panegyric, Varro was
+very sparing and niggardly of his praise even to the greatest characters:
+“Ille Pythagoram qui animas in æternitatem primus asseruit; ille Platonem
+qui deos esse persuasit; ille Aristotelem qui naturam bene loquendi in
+artem redegit; ille pauperem Curium sed divitibus imperantem; ille severos
+Catones, gentem Fabiam, decora Scipionum, totumque illum triumphalem
+Senatum parca laude perstrinxit.” Varro also wrote an eulogy on Porcia,
+the wife of Brutus, which is alluded to by Cicero in one of his letters to
+Atticus. Among his notices of celebrated characters, it is much to be
+regretted that the _Liber de Vita Sua_, cited by Charisius, has shared the
+same fate as most of the other valuable works of Varro. The treatise
+entitled, _Sisenna, sive de Historia_, was a tract on the composition of
+history, inscribed to Sisenna, the Roman historian, who wrote an account
+of the civil wars of Marius and Sylla. It contained, it is said, many
+excellent precepts with regard to the appropriate style of history, and
+the accurate investigation of facts. But the greatest service rendered by
+Varro to history was his attempt to fix the chronology of the world.
+Censorinus informs us that he was the first who regulated chronology by
+eclipses. That learned grammarian has also mentioned the division of three
+great periods established by Varro. He did not determine whether the
+earliest of them had any beginning, but he fixed the end of it at the
+Ogygian deluge. To this period of absolute historical darkness, he
+supposed that a kind of twilight succeeded, which continued from that
+flood till the institution of the Olympic games, and this he called the
+fabulous age. From that date the Greeks pretend to digest their history
+with some degree of order and clearness. Varro, therefore, looked on it as
+the break of day, or commencement of the historical age. The chronology,
+however, of those events which occurred at the beginning of this second
+period, is as uncertain and confused as of those which immediately
+preceded it. Thus, the historical æra is evidently placed too high by
+Varro. The earliest writers of history did not live till long after the
+Olympian epoch, and they again long preceded the earliest chronologers.
+Timæus, about the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, was the first who digested
+the events recorded by these ancient historians, according to a
+computation of the Olympiads(75). Preceding writers, indeed, mention these
+celebrated epochs, but the mode of reckoning by them was not brought into
+established use for many centuries after the Olympic æra. Arnobius farther
+informs us, that Varro calculated that not quite 2000 years had elapsed
+from the Ogygian flood to the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa. The
+building of Rome he placed two years higher than Cato had done in his
+_Origines_, founding his computation on the eclipse which had a short
+while preceded the birth of Romulus; but unfortunately this eclipse is not
+attested by contemporary authors, nor by any historian who could vouch for
+it with certainty. It was calculated a long time after the phænomenon was
+supposed to have appeared, by Tarrutius Firmanus, the judicial astrologer,
+who amused himself with drawing horoscopes. Varro requested him to
+discover the date of Romulus’s birth, by divining it from the known events
+of his life, as geometrical problems are solved by analysis; for Tarrutius
+considered it as belonging to the same art, (and doubtless the conclusions
+are equally certain,) when a child’s nativity is given to predict its
+future life, and when the incidents of life are given to cast up the
+nativity. Tarrutius, accordingly, having considered the actions of
+Romulus, and the manner of his death, and having combined all the
+incidents, pronounced that he was conceived in the first year of the
+second Olympiad, on the 23d of the Egyptian month Choiok, on which day
+there had been a total eclipse of the sun.
+
+Pompey, when about to enter for the first time on the office of Consul,
+being ignorant of city manners and senatorial forms, requested Varro to
+frame for him a written commentary or manual, from which he might learn
+the duties to be discharged by him when he convened the Senate. This book,
+which was entitled _Isagogicum de Officio Senatus habendi_, Varro says, in
+the letters which he wrote to Oppianus, had been lost. But in these
+letters he repeated many things on the subject, as what he had written
+before had perished(76).
+
+The _philosophical_ writings of Varro are not numerous; but his chief work
+of that description, entitled _De Philosophia Liber_, appears to have been
+very comprehensive. St Augustine informs us that Varro examined in it all
+the various sects of philosophers, of which he enumerated upwards of 280.
+The sect of the old Academy was that which he himself followed, and its
+tenets he maintained in opposition to all others. He classed these
+numerous sects in the following curious manner: All men chiefly desire, or
+place their happiness in, four things—pleasure—rest—these two united,
+(which Epicurus, however, termed pleasure,) or soundness of body and mind.
+Now, philosophers have contended that virtue is to be sought after for the
+sake of obtaining one or other of these four; or, that some one of these
+four is to be sought after for the sake of virtue; or, that they and
+virtue also are to be sought after for their own sake, and from these
+different opinions each of the four great objects of human desire being
+sought after with three different views, there are formed twelve sects of
+philosophers. These twelve sects are doubled, in consequence of the
+different opinions created by the considerations of social
+intercourse—some maintaining that the four great desires should be
+gratified for our own sake, and others, that they should be indulged only
+for the sake of our neighbours. The above twenty-four sects become
+forty-eight, from each system being defended as certain truth, or as
+merely the nearest approximation to probability—twenty-four sects
+maintaining each hypothesis as certain, and twenty-four as only probable.
+These again were doubled, from the difference of opinion with regard to
+the suitable garb and external habit and demeanour of philosophers.
+
+We have now got ninety-six sects by a very strange sort of computation,
+and all these are to be tripled, according to the different opinions
+entertained concerning the best mode of spending life—in literary leisure,
+in business, or in both(77).
+
+Varro having followed the sect of the old Academy, in preference to all
+others, proceeded to refute the principles of the sects he had enumerated.
+He cleared the way, by dismissing, as unworthy the name of philosophical,
+all those sects whose differences did not turn on what is the supreme
+final good; for there is no use in philosophizing, unless it be to make us
+happy, and that which makes us happy is the final good. But those who
+dispute, for example, whether a wise man should follow virtue,
+tranquillity, &c. partly for the sake of others, or solely for his own, do
+not dispute concerning what is the final good, but whether that good
+should be shared. In like manner, the Cynic does not dispute with regard
+to the supreme good, but in what dress or habit he who follows the supreme
+good should be clad. So also as to the controversy concerning the
+uncertainty of knowledge. The number of sects were thus reduced to the
+twelve with which our author set out, and in which the whole question
+relates to what is the final good. From these, however, he abstracted the
+sects which place the final good in pleasure, rest, or the union of
+both—not that he altogether disdained these, but he thought they might be
+included in soundness of body and mind, or what he called the _prima
+Naturæ_. There are thus only three questions which merit full discussion.
+Whether these _prima Naturæ_ should be desired for the sake of virtue, or
+virtue for their sake, or if they and virtue also should be desired for
+their own sake.
+
+Now, since in philosophy we seek the supreme felicity of man, we must
+inquire what man is. His nature is compounded of soul and body. Hence the
+_summum bonum_ necessarily consists in the _prima Naturæ_ or perfect
+soundness of mind and body. These, therefore, must be sought on their own
+account; and under them may be included virtue, which is part of soundness
+of mind, being the great director and prime former of the felicity of
+life.
+
+Such were the doctrines of the old Academy, which Varro was also
+introduced as supporting in Cicero’s _Academica_.—“I have comprehended,”
+says that illustrious orator and philosopher, in a letter to Atticus, “the
+whole Academic system in four books, instead of two, in the course of
+which Varro is made to defend the doctrines of Antiochus(78). I have put
+into his mouth all the arguments which were so accurately collected by
+Antiochus against the opinion of those who contend that there is no
+certainty to be attained in human knowledge. These I have answered myself.
+But the part assigned to Varro in the debate is so good, that I do not
+think the cause which I support appears the better.”
+
+I am not certain under what class Varro’s _Novem libri Disciplinarum_
+should be ranked, as it probably comprehended instructive lessons in the
+whole range of arts and sciences. One of the chapters, according to
+Vitruvius, was on the subject of architecture. Varro was particularly full
+and judicious in his remarks on the construction and situation of Roman
+villas, and seems to have laid the foundation for what Palladius and
+Columella subsequently compiled on that interesting topic. Another chapter
+was on arithmetic; and Fabricius mentions, that Vetranius Maurus has
+declared, in his _Life of Varro_, that he saw this part of the work, _De
+Disciplinis_, at Rome, in the library of the Cardinal Lorenzo Strozzi.
+
+Varro derived much notoriety from his _satirical_ compositions. His
+_Tricarenus_, or _Tricipitina_, was a satiric history of the triumvirate
+of Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus. Much pleasantry and sarcasm were also
+interspersed in his books entitled _Logistorici_; but his most celebrated
+production in that line was the satire which he himself entitled
+_Menippean_. It was so called from the cynic Menippus of Gadara, a city in
+Syria, who, like his countryman Meleager, was in the habit of expressing
+himself jocularly on the most grave and important subjects. He was the
+author of a _Symposium_, in the manner of Xenophon. His writings were
+interspersed with verses, parodied from Homer and the tragic poets, or
+ludicrously applied, for the purpose of burlesque. It is not known,
+however, that he wrote any professed satire. The appellation, then, of
+_Menippean_, was given to his satire by Varro, not from any production of
+the same kind by Menippus, but because he imitated his general style of
+humour. In its external form it appears to have been a sort of literary
+anomaly. Greek words and phrases were interspersed with Latin; prose was
+mingled with verses of various measures; and pleasantry with serious
+remark. As to its object and design, Cicero introduces Varro himself
+explaining this in the _Academica_. After giving his reasons for not
+writing professedly on philosophical subjects, he continues,—“In those
+ancient writings of ours, we, imitating Menippus, without translating him,
+have infused a degree of mirth and gaiety along with a portion of our most
+secret philosophy and logic, so that even our unlearned readers might more
+easily understand them, being, as it were, invited to read them with some
+pleasure. Besides, in the discourses we have composed in praise of the
+dead, and in the introductions to our antiquities, it was our wish to
+write in a manner worthy of philosophers, provided we have attained the
+desired object.” From what Cicero afterwards says in this dialogue, while
+addressing himself to Varro, it would appear, that he had indeed touched
+on philosophical subjects in his _Menippean_ satire, but that, learned as
+he was, his object was more to amuse his readers than instruct them: “You
+have entered on topics of philosophy in a manner sufficient to allure
+readers to its study, but inadequate to convey full instruction, or to
+advance its progress.”
+
+Many fragments of this _Menippean_ satire still remain, but they are much
+broken and corrupted. The heads of the different subjects, or chapters,
+contained in it, amounting to near one hundred and fifty, have been given
+by Fabricius in alphabetical order. Some of them are in Latin, others in
+Greek. A few chapters have double titles; and, though little remains of
+them but the titles, these show what an infinite variety of subjects was
+treated by the author. As a specimen, I subjoin those ranged under the
+letter A. Aborigines,—Περι Ανθρωπων φυσεως,—De Admirandis, vel Gallus
+Fundanius,—Agatho,—Age modo,—Αιει διβυη, vel περι Αἱρεσεων,—Ajax
+Stramentitius,—Αλλος ὁυτος Ἡρακλης,—Andabatæ,—Anthropopolis,—περι Αρχης,
+seu Marcopolis,—περι Αρχαιρεσιων, seu Serranus,—περι Αρετης κτησεως,—περι
+Αφροδισιων, seu vinalia,—Armorum judicium,—περι Αρρενοτητος, seu
+Triphallus,—Autumedus,—Mæonius,—Baiæ, &c.(79)
+
+There is a chapter concerning the duty of a husband, (De officio Mariti,)
+in which the author observes, that the errors of a wife are either to be
+cured or endured: He who extirpates them makes his wife better, but he who
+bears with them improves himself. Another is inscribed, “You know not what
+a late evening, or supper, may bring with it,” (Nescis quid vesper serus
+vehat.) In this chapter he remarks, that the number of guests should not
+be less than that of the Graces, or more than that of the Muses. To render
+an entertainment perfect, four things must concur—agreeable company,
+suitable place, convenient time, and careful preparation. The guests
+should not be loquacious or taciturn. Silence is for the bed-chamber, and
+eloquence for the Forum, but neither for a feast. The conversation ought
+not to turn on anxious or difficult subjects, but should be cheerful and
+inviting, so that utility may be combined with a certain degree of
+pleasure and allurement. This will be best managed, by discoursing of
+those things which relate to the ordinary occurrences or affairs of life,
+concerning which one has not leisure to talk in the Forum, or while
+transacting business. The master of the feast should rather be neat and
+clean than splendidly attired; and if he introduce reading into the
+entertainment, it should be so selected as to amuse, and to be neither
+troublesome nor tedious(80). A third chapter is entitled, περι ἐδεσματων;
+and treats of the rarer delicacies of an entertainment, especially foreign
+luxuries. Au. Gellius has given us the import of some verses, in which
+Varro mentioned the different countries which supplied the most exquisite
+articles of food. Peacocks came from Samos; cranes from Melos; kids from
+Ambracia; and the best oysters from Tarentum(81). Part of the chapter
+γνωθι σεαυτον was directed against the Latin tragic poets.
+
+What remains of the verses interspersed in the _Menippean_ satire, is too
+trifling to enable us to form any accurate judgment of the poetical
+talents of Varro.
+
+The style of satire introduced by Varro was imitated by Lucius Annæus
+Seneca, in his satire on the deification of Claudius Cæsar, who was called
+on earth Divus Claudius. The _Satyricon_ of Petronius Arbiter, in which
+that writer lashed the luxury, and avarice, and other vices of his age, is
+a satire of the Varronian species, prose being mingled with verse, and
+jest with serious remark. Such, too, are the Emperor Julian’s _Symposium
+of the Cæsars_, in which he characterizes his predecessors; and his
+Μισοπωγων, directed against the luxurious manners of the citizens of
+Antioch.
+
+Besides the works of Varro above mentioned, there is a miscellaneous
+collection of sentences or maxims which have been attributed to him,
+though it is not known in what part of his numerous writings they were
+originally introduced. Barthius found seventeen of these sentences in a
+MS. of the middle age, and printed them in his _Adversaria_. Schneider
+afterwards discovered, in the _Speculum Historiale_ of Vincent de
+Beauvais, a monk of the thirteenth century, a much more ample collection
+of them, which he has inserted in his edition of the _Scriptores rei
+Rusticæ_(82). They consist of moral maxims, in the style of those
+preserved from the Mimes of Publius Syrus, and had doubtless been culled
+as flowers from the works of Varro, at a time when the immense garden of
+taste and learning which he planted, had not yet been laid waste by the
+hand of time, or the spoiler(83).
+
+Though the above list of the works of Varro is far from complete, a
+sufficient number has been mentioned to justify the exclamation of
+Quintilian,—“Quam multa, immo pene omnia tradidit Varro!” and the more
+full panegyric of Cicero,—“His works brought us home, as it were, while we
+were foreigners in our own city, and wandering like strangers, so that we
+might know who and where we were; for in them are laid open the chronology
+of his country,—a description of the seasons,—the laws of religion,—the
+ordinances of the priests,—domestic and military occurrences,—the
+situations of countries and places,—the names of all things divine and
+human,—the breed of animals,—moral duties,—and the origin of things(84).”
+
+Nor did Varro merely delight and instruct his fellow-citizens by his
+writings. By his careful attention, in procuring the most valuable books,
+and establishing libraries, he provided, perhaps, still more effectually
+than by his own learned compositions, for the progressive improvement and
+civilization of his countrymen. The formation of either private or public
+libraries was late of taking place at Rome, for the Romans were late in
+attending to literary studies. Tiraboschi quotes a number of writers who
+have discovered a library in the public records preserved at Rome(85), and
+in the books of the Sibyls(86). But these, he observes, may be classed
+with the library which Madero found to have existed before the flood, and
+that belonging to Adam, of which Hilscherus has made out an exact
+catalogue(87). From Syracuse and Corinth the Romans brought away the
+statues and pictures, and other monuments of the fine arts; but we do not
+learn that they carried to the capital any works of literature or science.
+Some agricultural books found their way to Rome from Africa, on the
+destruction of Carthage; but the other treasures of its libraries, though
+they fell under the power of a conqueror not without pretensions to taste
+and erudition, were bestowed on the African princes in alliance with the
+Romans(88).
+
+Paulus Emilius is said by Plutarch to have allowed his sons to choose some
+volumes from the library of Perseus, King of Macedon(89), whom he led
+captive to Rome in 585. But the honour of first possessing a library in
+Rome is justly due to Sylla; who, on the occupation of Athens, in 667,
+acquired the library of Apellicon, which he discovered in the temple of
+Apollo. This collection, which contained, among various other books, the
+works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, was reserved to himself by Sylla from
+the plunder; and, having been brought to Rome, was arranged by the
+grammarian Tyrannio, who also supplied and corrected the mutilated text of
+Aristotle(90). Engaged, as he constantly was, in domestic strife or
+foreign warfare, Sylla could have made little use of this library, and he
+did not communicate the benefit of it to scholars, by opening it to the
+public; but the example of the Dictator prompted other commanders not to
+overlook the libraries, in the plunder of captured cities, and books thus
+became a fashionable acquisition. Sometimes, indeed, these collections
+were rather proofs of the power and opulence of the Roman generals, than
+of their literary taste or talents. A certain value was now affixed to
+manuscripts; and these were, in consequence, amassed by them, from a
+spirit of rapacity, and the principle of leaving nothing behind which
+could be carried off by force or stratagem. In one remarkable instance,
+however, the learning of the proprietor fully corresponded to the literary
+treasures which he had collected. Lucullus, a man of severe study, and
+wonderfully skilled in all the fine arts, after having employed many years
+in the cultivation of literature, and the civil administration of the
+republic, was unexpectedly called, in consequence of a political intrigue,
+to lead on the Roman army in the perilous contest with Mithridates; and,
+though previously unacquainted with military affairs, he became the first
+captain of the age, with little farther experience, than his study of the
+art of war, during the voyage from Rome to Asia. His attempts to introduce
+a reform in the corrupt administration of the Asiatic provinces, procured
+him enemies, through whose means he was superseded in the command of the
+army, by one who was not superior to him in talents, and was far inferior
+in virtue. After his recall from Pontus, and retreat to a private station,
+he offered a new spectacle to his countrymen. He did not retire, like
+Fabricius and Cincinnatus, to plough his farm, and eat turnips in a
+cottage—he did not, like Africanus, quit his country in disgust, because
+it had unworthily treated him; nor did he spend his wealth and leisure,
+like Sylla, in midnight debauchery with buffoons and parasites. He
+employed the riches he had acquired during his campaigns in the
+construction of delightful villas, situated on the shore of the sea, or
+hanging on the declivities of hills. Gardens and spacious porticos, which
+he adorned with all the elegance of painting and sculpture, made the
+Romans ashamed of their ancient rustic simplicity. These would doubtless
+be the objects of admiration to his contemporaries; but it was his
+library, in which so many copies of valuable works were multiplied or
+preserved, and his distinguished patronage of learning, that claim the
+gratitude of posterity. “His library,” says Plutarch, “had walks,
+galleries, and cabinets belonging to it, which were open to all visitors;
+and the ingenious Greeks resorted to this abode of the muses to hold
+literary converse, in which Lucullus delighted to join them(91).” Other
+Roman patricians had patronized literature, by extending their protection
+to a favoured few, as the elder Scipio Africanus to Ennius, and the
+younger to Terence; but Lucullus was the first who encouraged all the arts
+and sciences, and promoted learning with princely munificence.
+
+But the slave Tyrannio vied with the most splendid of the Romans in the
+literary treasures he had amassed. A native of Pontus, he was taken
+prisoner by Lucullus, in the course of the war with Mithridates; and,
+having been brought to Rome, he was given to Muræna, from whom he received
+freedom(92). He spent the remainder of his life in teaching rhetoric and
+grammar. He also arranged the library of Cicero at Antium(93), and taught
+his nephew, Quintus, in the house of the orator(94). These various
+employments proved so profitable, that they enabled him to acquire a
+library of 30,000 volumes(95). Libraries of considerable extent were also
+formed by Atticus and Cicero; and _Varro_ was not inferior to any of his
+learned contemporaries, in the industry of collecting and transcribing
+manuscripts, both in the Greek and Latin language.
+
+The library of Varro, however, and all the others which we have mentioned,
+were private—open, indeed, to literary men, from the general courtesy of
+the possessors, but the access to them still dependent on their good will
+and indulgence. Julius Cæsar was the first who formed the design of
+establishing a great public library; and to Varro he assigned the task of
+arranging the books which he had procured. This plan, which was rendered
+abortive by the untimely fate of Cæsar, was carried into effect by Asinius
+Pollio, who devoted part of the wealth he had acquired from the spoils of
+war, to the construction of a magnificent gallery, adjacent to the Temple
+of Liberty, which he filled with books, and the busts of the learned.
+Varro was the only living author who, in this public library, had the
+honour of an image(96), which was erected to him as a testimony of respect
+for his universal erudition. He also aided Augustus with his advice, in
+the formation of the two libraries which that emperor established, and
+which was part of his general system for the encouragement of science and
+learning. When tyrants understand their trade, and when their judgment is
+equal to their courage or craft, they become the most zealous and liberal
+promoters of the interests of learning; for they know that it is for their
+advantage to withdraw the minds of their subjects from political
+discussion and to give them, in exchange, the consoling pleasures of
+imagination, and the inexhaustible occupations of scientific curiosity.
+
+Were I writing the history of Roman arts, it would be necessary to mention
+that Varro excelled in his knowledge of all those that are useful, and in
+his taste for all those that are elegant. He was the contriver of what may
+be considered as the first hour clock that was made in Rome, and which
+measured time by a hand entirely moved by mechanism. That he also
+possessed a Museum, adorned with exquisite works of sculpture, we learn
+from Pliny, who mentions, that it contained an admirable group, by the
+statuary Archelaus, formed out of one block of marble, and representing a
+lioness, with Cupids sporting around her—some giving her drink from a
+horn; some in the attitude of putting socks on her paws, and others in the
+act of binding her. The same writer acquaints us, that, in the year 692,
+Varro, who was then Curule Ædile, caused a piece of painting, in fresco,
+to be brought from Sparta to Rome, in order to adorn the Comitium—the
+whole having been cut out entire, and enclosed in cases of wood. The
+painting was excellent, and much admired; but what chiefly excited
+astonishment, was that it should have been taken from the wall without
+injury, and transported safe to Italy(97).
+
+I fear I have too long detained the reader with this account of the life
+and writings of Varro; yet it is not unpleasing to dwell on such a
+character. He was the contemporary of Marius and Sylla, of Cæsar and
+Pompey, of Antony and Octavius, these men of contention and massacre; and
+amid the convulsions into which they threw their country, it is not
+ungrateful to trace the _Secretum Iter_, which he silently pursued through
+a period unparalleled in anarchy and crimes. Uninterrupted, save for a
+moment, by strife and ambition, he prosecuted his literary labours till
+the extreme term of his prolonged existence. “In eodem enim lectulo,” says
+Valerius Maximus, with a spirit and eloquence beyond his usual strain of
+composition—“In eodem enim lectulo, et spiritus ejus, et egregiorum operum
+cursus extinctus est.”
+
+
+
+
+
+                             NIGIDIUS FIGULUS
+
+
+was a man much resembling Varro, and next to him was accounted the most
+learned of the Romans(98). He was the contemporary of Cicero, and one of
+his chief advisers and associates in suppressing the conspiracy of
+Catiline(99). Shortly afterwards he arrived at the dignity of Prætor, but
+having espoused the part of Pompey in the civil wars, he was driven into
+banishment on the accession of Cæsar to the supreme power, and died in
+709, before Cicero could obtain his recall from exile(100). He was much
+addicted to judicial astrology; and ancient writers relate a vast number
+of his predictions, particularly that of the empire of the world to
+Augustus, which he presaged immediately after the birth of that
+prince(101).
+
+Nigidius vied with Varro in multifarious erudition, and the number of his
+works—grammar, criticism, natural history, and the origin of man, having
+successively employed his pen. His writings are praised by Cicero, Pliny,
+Aulus Gellius, and Macrobius; but they were rendered almost entirely unfit
+for popular use by their subtlety, mysteriousness, and
+obscurity(102)—defects to which his cultivation of judicial astrology, and
+adoption of the Pythagorean philosophy, may have materially contributed.
+Aulus Gellius gives many examples of the obscurity, or rather
+unintelligibility, of his grammatical writings(103). His chief work was
+his Grammatical Commentaries, in thirty books, in which he attempted to
+show, that names and words were fixed not by accidental application, but
+by a certain power and order of nature. One of his examples, of terms
+being rather natural than arbitrary, was taken from the word _Vos_, in
+pronouncing which, he observed, that we use a certain motion of the mouth,
+agreeing with what the word itself expresses: We protrude, by degrees, the
+tips of our lips, and thrust forward our breath and mind towards those
+with whom we are engaged in conversation. On the other hand, when we say
+_nos_, we do not pronounce it with a broad and expanded blast of the
+voice, nor with projecting lips, but we restrain our breath and lips, as
+it were, within ourselves. The like natural signs accompany the utterance
+of the words _tu_ and _ego_—_tibi_ and _mihi_(104). Nigidius also wrote
+works, entitled _De Animalibus_, _De Ventis_, _De Extis_, and a great many
+treatises on the nature of the gods. All these have long since perished,
+except a very few fragments, which have been collected and explained by
+Janus Rutgersius, in the third book of his _Variæ Lectiones_, published at
+Leyden in 1618; 4to. In this collection he has also inserted a Greek
+translation of another lost work of Nigidius, on the presages to be drawn
+from thunder. The original Latin is said to have been taken from books
+which bore the name of the Etruscan Tages, the supposed founder of the
+science of divination. The Greek version was executed by Laurentius, a
+philosopher of the age of Justinian, and his translation was discovered by
+Meursius, about the beginning of the seventeenth century, in the Palatine
+library. It is a sort of Almanack, containing presages of thunder for each
+particular day of the year, and beginning with June. If it thunder on the
+13th of June, the life or fortunes of some great person are menaced—if on
+the 19th of July, war is announced—if on the 5th of August, it is
+indicated that those women, with whom we have any concern, will become
+somewhat more reasonable than they have hitherto proved(105).
+
+With Varro and Nigidius Figulus, may be classed Tiro, the celebrated
+freedman of Cicero, and constant assistant in all his literary pursuits.
+He wrote many books on the use and formation of the Latin language, and
+others on miscellaneous subjects, which he denominated _Pandectas_(106),
+as comprehending every sort of literary topic.
+
+Quintus Cornificius, the elder, was also a very general scholar. He
+composed a curious treatise on the etymology of the names of things in
+heaven and earth, in which he discovered great knowledge, both of Roman
+antiquities, and the most recondite Grecian literature. It was here he
+introduced an explication of Homer’s dark fable, where Jupiter and all the
+gods proceed to feast for twelve days in Ethiopia. The work was written in
+709, during the time of Cæsar’s last expedition to Spain, and was probably
+intended as a supplement to Varro’s treatise on a similar topic.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 HISTORY.
+
+
+From our supposing that those things which affected our ancestors may
+affect us, and that those which affect us must affect posterity, we become
+fond of collecting memorials of prior events, and also of preserving the
+remembrance of incidents which have occurred in our own age. The historic
+passion, if it may be so termed, thus naturally divides itself into two
+desires—that of indulging our own curiosity, and of relating what has
+occurred to ourselves or our contemporaries.
+
+Monuments accordingly have been raised, and rude hymns composed, for this
+purpose, by people who had scarcely acquired the use of letters. Among
+civilized nations, the passion grows in proportion to the means of
+gratifying it, and the force of example comes to be so strongly felt, that
+its power and influence are soon historically employed.
+
+The Romans were, in all ages, particularly fond of giving instruction, by
+every sort of example. They placed the images of their ancestors in the
+Forum and the vestibules of their houses, so that these venerable forms
+everywhere met their eyes; and by recalling the glorious actions of the
+dead, excited the living to emulate their forefathers. The virtue of one
+generation was thus transfused, by the magic of example, into those by
+which it was succeeded, and the spirit of heroism was maintained through
+many ages of the republic—
+
+  “Has olim virtus crevit Romana per artes:
+  Namque foro in medio stabant spirantia signa
+  Magnanimûm heroum; hîc Decios, magnosque Camillos
+  Cernere erat: vivax heroum in imagine virtus,
+  Invidiamque ipsis factura nepotibus, acri
+  Urgebat stimulo Romanum in prælia robur(107).”
+
+History, therefore, among the Romans, was not composed merely to gratify
+curiosity, or satiate the historic passion, but also to inflame, by the
+force of example, and urge on to emulation, in warlike prowess. An
+insatiable thirst of military fame—an unlimited ambition of extending
+their empire—an unbounded confidence in their own force and courage—an
+impetuous overbearing spirit, with which all their enterprises were
+pursued, composed, in the early days of the Republic, the characteristics
+of Romans. To foment, and give fresh vigour to these, was a chief object
+of history.—“I have recorded these things,” says an old Latin annalist,
+after giving an account of Regulus, “that they who read my commentaries
+may be rendered, by his example, greater and better.”
+
+Accordingly, the Romans had journalists or annalists, from the earliest
+periods of the state. The Annals of the Pontiffs were of the same date, if
+we may believe Cicero, as the foundation of the city(108); but others have
+placed their commencement in the reign of Numa(109), and Niebuhr not till
+after the battle of Regillus, which terminated the hopes of Tarquin(110).
+In order to preserve the memory of public transactions, the Pontifex
+Maximus, who was the official historian of the Republic, annually
+committed to writing, on wooden tablets, the leading events of each year,
+and then set them up at his own house for the instruction of the
+people(111). These Annals were continued down to the Pontificate of
+Mucius, in the year 629, and were called _Annales Maximi_, as being
+periodically compiled and kept by the Pontifex Maximus, or _Publici_, as
+recording public transactions. Having been inscribed on wooden tablets,
+they would necessarily be short, and destitute of all circumstantial
+detail; and being annually formed by successive Pontiffs, could have no
+appearance of a continued history. They would contain, as Lord Bolingbroke
+remarks, little more than short minutes or memoranda, hung up in the
+Pontiff’s house, like the rules of the game in a billiard room: their
+contents would resemble the epitome prefixed to the books of Livy, or the
+Register of Remarkable Occurrences in modern Almanacks.
+
+But though short, jejune, and unadorned, still, as records of facts, these
+annals, if spared, would have formed an inestimable treasure of early
+history. The Roman territory, in the first ages of the state, was so
+confined, that every event may be considered as having passed under the
+immediate observation of the sacred annalist. Besides, the method which,
+as Cicero informs us, was observed in preparing these Annals, and the care
+that was taken to insert no fact, of which the truth had not been attested
+by as many witnesses as there were citizens at Rome, who were all entitled
+to judge and make their remarks on what ought either to be added or
+retrenched, must have formed the most authentic body of history that could
+be desired. The memory of transactions which were yet recent, and whose
+concomitant circumstances every one could remember, was therein
+transmitted to posterity. By these means, the Annals were proof against
+falsification, and their veracity was incontestibly fixed.
+
+These valuable records, however, were, for the most part, consumed in the
+conflagration of the city, consequent on its capture by the Gauls—an event
+which was to the early history of Rome what the English invasion by Edward
+I. proved to the history of Scotland. The practice of the Pontifex Maximus
+preserving such records was discontinued after that eventful period. A
+feeble attempt was made to revive it towards the end of the second Punic
+war; and, from that time, the custom was not entirely dropped till the
+Pontificate of Mucius, in the year 629. It is to this second series of
+Annals, or to some other late and ineffectual attempt to revive the
+ancient Roman history, that Cicero must allude, when he talks of the Great
+Annals, in his work _De Legibus_(112), since it is undoubted that the
+pontifical records of events previous to the capture of Rome by the Gauls,
+almost entirely perished in the conflagration of the city(113).
+Accordingly, Livy never cites these records, and there is no appearance
+that he had any opportunity of consulting them; nor are they mentioned by
+Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in the long catalogue of records and memorials
+which he had employed in the composition of his _Historical Antiquities_.
+The _books_ of the Pontiffs, some of which were recovered in the search
+made to find what the flames had spared, are, indeed, occasionally
+mentioned. But these were works explaining the mysteries of religion, with
+instructions as to the ceremonies to be observed in its practical
+exercise, and could have been of no more service to Roman, than a
+collection of breviaries or missals to modern history.
+
+Statues, inscriptions, and other public monuments, which aid in
+perpetuating the memory of illustrious persons, and transmitting to
+posterity the services they have rendered their country, were accounted,
+among the Romans, as the most honourable rewards that could be bestowed on
+great actions; and virtue, in those ancient times, thought no recompense
+more worthy of her than the immortality which such monuments seemed to
+promise. Rome having produced so many examples of a disinterested
+patriotism and valour must have been filled with monuments of this
+description when taken by the Gauls. But these honorary memorials were
+thrown down along with the buildings, and buried in the ruins. If any
+escaped, it was but a small number; and the greatest part of those that
+were to be seen at Rome in the eighth century of the city, were founded on
+fabulous traditions which proved that the loss of the true monuments had
+occasioned the substitution of false ones. Had the genuine monuments been
+preserved at Rome, even till the period when the first regular annals
+began to be composed, though they would not have sufficed to restore the
+history entirely, they would have served at least to have perpetuated
+incontestably the memory of various important facts, to have fixed their
+dates, and transmitted the glory of great men to posterity.
+
+On what then, it will be asked, was the Roman history founded, and what
+authentic records were preserved as materials for its composition? There
+were first the _Leges Regiæ_. These were diligently searched for, and were
+discovered along with the Twelve Tables, after the sack of the city: And
+all those royal laws which did not concern sacred matters, were publicly
+exposed to be seen and identified by the people(114), that no suspicion of
+forgery or falsification might descend to posterity. These precautions
+leave us little room to doubt that the _Leges Regiæ_, and Laws of the
+Tables, were preserved, and that they remained as they had been originally
+promulgated by the kings and decemvirs. Such laws, however, would be of no
+greater service to Roman history, than what the _Regiam Majestatem_ has
+been to that of Scotland. They might be useful in tracing the early
+constitution of the state, the origin of several customs, ceremonies,
+public offices, and other points of antiquarian research, but they could
+be of little avail in fixing dates, ascertaining facts, and setting events
+in their true light, which form the peculiar objects of civil history.
+
+Treaties of peace, which were the pledges of the public tranquillity from
+without, being next to the laws of the greatest importance to the state,
+much care was bestowed, after the expulsion of the Gauls, in recovering as
+many of them as the flames had spared. Some of them were the more easily
+restored, from having been kept in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus,
+which the fury of the enemy could not reach(115). Those which had been
+saved, continued to be very carefully preserved, and there is no reason to
+suspect them of having been falsified. Among the treaties which were
+rescued from destruction, Horace mentions those of the Kings, with the
+Gabii and the Sabines (_Fœdera Regum_(116).) The former was that concluded
+by Tarquinius Superbus, and which, Dionysius of Halicarnassus informs us,
+was still preserved at Rome in his time, in the temple of Jupiter Fidius,
+on a buckler made of wood, and covered with an ox’s hide, on which the
+articles of the treaty were written in ancient characters(117). Dionysius
+mentions two treaties with the Sabines—the first was between Romulus and
+their king Tatius(118); and the other, the terms of which were inscribed
+on a column erected in a temple, was concluded with them by Tullus
+Hostilius, at the close of a Sabine war(119). Livy likewise cites a treaty
+made with the Ardeates(120); and Polybius has preserved entire another
+entered into with the Carthaginians, in the year of the expulsion of the
+kings(121). Pliny has also alluded to one of the conditions of a treaty
+which Porsenna, the ally of Tarquin, granted to the Roman people(122). Now
+these leagues with the Gabii, Sabines, Ardeates, and one or two with the
+Latins, are almost the only treaties we find anywhere referred to by the
+ancient Latin historians; who thus seem to have employed but little
+diligence in consulting those original documents, or drawing from them, in
+compiling their histories, such assistance as they could have afforded.
+The treaties quoted by Polybius and Pliny, completely contradict the
+relations of the Latin annalists; those cited by Polybius proving, in
+opposition to their assertions, that the Carthaginians had been in
+possession of a great part of Sicily about a century previous to the date
+which Livy has fixed to their first expedition to that island; and those
+quoted by Pliny, that Porsenna, instead of treating with the Romans on
+equal terms, as represented by their historians, had actually prohibited
+them from employing arms,—permitting them the use of iron only in tilling
+the ground(123).
+
+The _Libri Lintei_ (so called because written on linen) are cited by Livy
+after the old annalist Licinius Macer, by whom they appear to have been
+carefully studied. These books were kept in the temple of Juno Moneta, but
+were probably of less importance than the other public records, which were
+inscribed on rolls of lead. They were obviously a work of no great extent,
+since Livy, who appeals to them on four different occasions in the space
+of ten years, just after the degradation of the decemvirs, had not quoted
+them before, and never refers to them again. There also appear to have
+been different copies of them which did not exactly agree, and Livy seems
+far from considering their authority as decisive even on the points on
+which reference is made to them(124).
+
+The _Memoirs of the Censors_ were journals preserved by those persons who
+held the office of Censor. They were transmitted by them to their
+descendants as so many sacred pledges, and were preserved in the families
+which had been rendered illustrious by that dignity. They formed a series
+of eulogies on those who had thus exalted the glory of their house, and
+contained a relation of the memorable actions performed by them in
+discharge of the high censorial office with which they had been
+invested(125). Hence they must be considered as part of the _Family
+Memoirs_, which were unfortunately the great and corrupt sources of early
+Roman history.
+
+It was the custom of the ancient families of Rome to preserve with
+religious care everything that could contribute to perpetuate the glory of
+their ancestry, and confer honour on their lineage. Thus, besides the
+titles which were placed under the smoky images of their forefathers,
+there were likewise tables in their apartments on which lay books and
+memoirs recording, in a style of general panegyric, the services they had
+performed for the state during their exercise of the employments with
+which they had been dignified(126).
+
+Had these Family Memoirs been faithfully composed, they would have been of
+infinite service to history; and although all other monuments had
+perished, they alone would have supplied the defect. They were a record,
+by those who had the best access to knowledge, of the high offices which
+their ancestors had filled, and of whatever memorable was transacted
+during the time they had held the exalted situations of Prætor or Consul:
+Even the dates of events, as may be seen by a fragment which Dionysius of
+Halicarnassus cites from them, were recorded with all the appearance of
+accuracy. Each set of family memoirs thus formed a series of biographies,
+which, by preserving the memory of the great actions of individuals, and
+omitting nothing that could tend to their illustration, comprehended also
+the principal affairs of state, in which they had borne a share. From the
+fragments of the genealogical book of the Porcian family, quoted by Aulus
+Gellius, and the abstract of the Memoirs of the Claudian and Livian
+families, preserved by Suetonius, in the first chapters of his Life of
+Tiberius, we may perceive how important such memoirs would have been, and
+what light they would have thrown on history, had they possessed the stamp
+of fidelity. But unfortunately, in their composition more regard was paid
+to family reputation than to historical truth. Whatever tended to exalt
+its name was embellished and exaggerated. Whatever could dim its lustre
+was studiously withdrawn. Circumstances, meanwhile, became peculiarly
+favourable for these high family pretensions. The destruction of the
+public monuments and annals of the Pontiffs, gave ample scope for the
+vanity or fertile imagination of those who chose to fabricate titles and
+invent claims to distinction, the falsity of which could no longer be
+demonstrated. “All the monuments,” says Plutarch, “being destroyed at the
+taking of Rome, others were substituted, which were forged out of
+complaisance to private persons, who pretended to be of illustrious
+families, though in fact they had no relation to them(127).” So
+unmercifully had the great families availed themselves of this favourable
+opportunity, that Livy complains that these private memoirs were the chief
+cause of the uncertainty in which he was forced to fluctuate during the
+early periods of his history. “What has chiefly confounded the history,”
+says he, “is each family ascribing to itself the glory of great actions
+and honourable employments. Hence, doubtless, the exploits of individuals
+and public monuments have been falsified; nor have we so much as one
+writer of these times whose authority can be depended on(128).” Those
+funeral orations on the dead, which it was the custom to deliver at Rome,
+and which were preserved in families as carefully as the memoirs, also
+contributed to augment this evil. Cicero declares, that history had been
+completely falsified by these funeral panegyrics, many things being
+inserted in them which never were performed, or existed—False triumphs,
+supernumerary consulships, and forged pedigrees(129).
+
+Connected with these prose legends, there were also the old heroic ballads
+formerly mentioned, on which the annals of Ennius were in a great measure
+built, and to which may be traced some of those wonderful incidents of
+Roman history, chiefly contrived for the purpose of exalting the military
+achievements of the country. Many things which of right belong to such
+ancient poems, still exist under the disguise of an historical clothing in
+the narratives of the Roman annalists. Niebuhr, the German historian of
+Rome, has recently analysed these legends, and taken much from the Roman
+history, by detecting what incidents rest on no other foundation than
+their chimerical or embellished pictures, and by shewing how incidents, in
+themselves unconnected, have by their aid been artificially combined.
+Such, according to him, were the stories of the birth of Romulus, of the
+treason of Tatia, the death of the Fabii, and the incidents of an almost
+complete Epopée, from the succession of Tarquinius Priscus to the battle
+of Regillus. These old ballads, being more attractive and of easier access
+than authentic records and monuments, were preferred to them as
+authorities; and even when converted into prose, retained much of their
+original and poetic spirit. For example, it was feigned in them that
+Tullus Hostilius was the son of Hostus Hostilius, who perished in the war
+with the Sabines, which, according to chronology, would make Tullus at
+least eighty years old when he mounted the throne; but it was thought a
+fine thing to represent him as the son of a genuine Roman hero, who had
+fallen in the service of his country. Niebuhr, probably, as I have already
+shown, has attributed too much to these old heroic ballads, and has
+assigned to them an extent and importance of which there are no adequate
+proofs. But I strongly suspect that the heroic or historical poems of
+Ennius had formed a principal document to the Roman annalists for the
+transactions during the Monarchy and earlier times of the Republic, and
+had been appealed to, like Ferdousi’s Shad-Nameh, for occurrences which
+were probably rather fictions of fancy than events of history.
+
+The Greek writers, from whom several fables and traditions were derived
+concerning the infancy of Rome, lived not much higher than the age of
+Fabius Pictor, and only mention its affairs cursorily, while treating of
+Alexander or his successors. Polybius, indeed, considers their narratives
+as mere vulgar traditions(130), and Dionysius says they have written some
+few things concerning the Romans, which they have compiled from common
+reports, without accuracy or diligence. To them have been plausibly
+attributed those fables, concerning the exploits of Romans, which bear so
+remarkable an analogy to incidents in Grecian history(131). Like to these
+in all respects are the histories which some Romans published in Greek
+concerning the ancient transactions of their own nation.
+
+We thus see that the authentic materials for the early history of Rome
+were meagre and imperfect—that the annals of the Pontiffs and public
+monuments had perished—that the _Leges Regiæ_, Twelve Tables, and remains
+of the religious or ritual books of the Pontiffs, could throw no great
+light on history, and that the want of better materials was supplied by
+false, and sometimes incredible relations, drawn from the family
+traditions—“_ad ostentationem scenæ gaudentis miraculis aptiora quàm ad
+fidem_(132).” The mutilated inscriptions, too, the scanty treaties, and
+the family memoirs, became, from the variations in the language, in a
+great measure unintelligible to the generation which succeeded that in
+which they were composed. Polybius informs us, that the most learned
+Romans of his day could not read a treaty with the Carthaginians,
+concluded after the expulsion of the kings. Hence, the documents for
+history, such as they were, became useless to the historian, or, at least,
+were of such difficulty, that he would sometimes mistake their import, and
+be, at others, deterred from investigation.
+
+When all this is considered, and also that Rome, in its commencement, was
+the dwelling of a rude and ignorant people, subsisting by rapine—that the
+art of writing, the only sure guardian of the remembrance of events, was
+little practised—that critical examination was utterly unknown; and that
+the writers of no other nation would think of accurately transmitting to
+posterity events, which have only become interesting from the subsequent
+conquests and extension of the Roman empire, it must be evident, that the
+materials provided for the work of the historian would necessarily be
+obscure and uncertain.
+
+The great general results recorded in Roman history, during the first five
+centuries, cannot, indeed, be denied. It cannot be doubted that Rome
+ultimately triumphed over the neighbouring nations, and obtained
+possession of their territories; for Rome would not have been what we know
+it was in the sixth century, without these successes. But there exists, in
+the particular events recorded in the Roman history, sufficient internal
+evidence of its uncertainty, or rather falsehood; and here I do not refer
+to the lying fables, and absurd prodigies, which the annalists may have
+inserted in deference to the prejudices of the people, nor to the almost
+incredible daring and endurance of Scævola, Cocles, or Curtius, which may
+be accounted for from the wild spirit of a half-civilized nation, and are
+not unlike the acts we hear of among Indian tribes; but I allude to the
+total improbability of the historic details concerning transactions with
+surrounding tribes, and the origin of domestic institutions. How, for
+example, after so long a series of defeats, with few intervals of
+prosperity interposed, could the Italian states have possessed resources
+sufficient incessantly to renew hostilities, in which they were always the
+aggressors? And how, on the other hand, should the Romans, with their
+constant preponderance of force and fortune, (if the repetition and
+magnitude of their victories can be depended on,) have been so long
+employed in completely subjugating them? The numbers slain, according to
+Livy’s account, are so prodigious, that it is difficult to conceive how
+the population of such moderate territories, as belonged to the
+independent Italian communities, could have supplied such losses. We,
+therefore, cannot avoid concluding, that the frequency and importance of
+these campaigns were magnified by the consular families indulging in the
+vanity of exaggerating the achievements of their ancestors(133). Sometimes
+these campaigns are represented as carried on against the whole nation of
+Volsci, Samnites, or Etruscans, when, in fact, only a part was engaged;
+and, at other times, battles, which never were fought, have been extracted
+from the family memoirs, where they were drawn up to illustrate each
+consulate; for what would a consul have been without a triumph or a
+victory? It would exceed my limits were I to point out the various
+improbabilities and evident inconsistencies of this sort recorded in the
+early periods of Roman history. With regard, again, to the domestic
+institutions of Rome, everything (doubtless for the sake of effect and
+dignity) is represented as having at once originated in the refined policy
+and foresight of the early kings. The division of the people into tribes
+and curiæ—the relations of patron and client—the election of senators—in
+short, the whole fabric of the constitution, is exhibited as a
+preconcerted plan of political wisdom, and not (as a constitution has been
+in every other state, and must have been in Rome) the gradual result of
+contingencies and progressive improvements, of assertions of rights, and
+struggles for power.
+
+The opinion entertained by Polybius of the uncertainty of the Roman
+history, is sufficiently manifest from a passage in the fourth book of his
+admirable work, which is written with all the philosophy and profound
+inquiry of Tacitus, without any of his apparent affectation.—“The things
+which I have undertaken to describe,” says he, “are those which I myself
+have seen, or such as I have received from men who were eye-witnesses of
+them. For, had I gone back to a more early period, and borrowed my
+accounts from the report of persons who themselves had only heard them
+before from others, as it would scarcely have been possible that I should
+myself be able to discern the true state of the matters that were then
+transacted, so neither could I have written anything concerning them with
+confidence.” What, indeed, can we expect to know with regard to the Kings
+of Rome, when we find so much uncertainty with regard to the most
+memorable events of the republic, as the period of the first creation of a
+dictator and tribunes of the people? The same doubt exists in the
+biography of illustrious characters. Cicero says, that Coriolanus, having
+gone over to the Volsci, repressed the struggles of his resentment by a
+voluntary death; “for, though you, my Atticus,” he continues, “have
+represented his death in a different manner, you must pardon me if I do
+not subscribe to the justness of your representations(134).” Atticus, I
+presume, gave the account as we now have it, that he was killed in a
+tumult of the Volsci, and Fabius Pictor had written that he lived till old
+age(135). Of the reliance to be placed on the events between the death of
+Coriolanus and the termination of the second Punic war, we may judge from
+the uncertainty which prevailed with regard to Scipio Africanus, a hero,
+of all others, the most distinguished, and who flourished, comparatively,
+at a recent period. Yet some of the most important events of his life are
+involved in contradiction and almost hopeless obscurity.—“Cicero,” says
+Berwick, in his Memoirs of Scipio, “speaks with great confidence of the
+year in which he died, yet Livy found so great a difference of opinion
+among historians on the subject, that he declares himself unable to
+ascertain it. From a fragment in Polybius, we learn, that, in his time,
+the authors who had written of Scipio were ignorant of some circumstances
+of his life, and mistaken in others; and, from Livy, it appears, that the
+accounts respecting his life, trial, death, funeral, and sepulchre, were
+so contradictory, that he was not able to determine what tradition, or
+whose writings, he ought to credit.”
+
+But, although the early events of Roman history were of such a
+description, that Cicero and Atticus were not agreed concerning them—that
+Polybius could write nothing about them with confidence; and that Livy
+would neither undertake to affirm nor refute them, every vestige of Roman
+antiquity had not perished. Though the annals of the Pontiffs were
+destroyed,—those who wrote, who kept, and had read them, could not have
+lost all recollection of the facts they recorded. Even from the family
+memoirs, full of falsehoods as they were, much truth might have been
+extracted by a judicious and acute historian. The journals of different
+rival families must often have served as historical checks on each other,
+and much real information might have been gathered, by comparing and
+contrasting the vain-glorious lies of those family-legends(136).
+
+Such was the state of the materials for Roman history, in the middle of
+the sixth century, from the building of the city, at which time regular
+annals first began to be composed; and notwithstanding all unfavourable
+circumstances, much might have been done, even at that period, towards
+fixing and ascertaining the dates and circumstances of previous events,
+had the earliest annalist of Rome been in any degree fitted for this
+difficult and important task; but, unfortunately,
+
+
+
+
+
+                          QUINTUS FABIUS PICTOR,
+
+
+who first undertook to relate the affairs of Rome from its foundation, in
+a formal and regular order, and is thence called by Livy _Scriptorum
+antiquissimus_, appears to have been wretchedly qualified for the labour
+he had undertaken, either in point of fidelity or research: and to his
+carelessness and inaccuracy, more even than to the loss of monuments, may
+be attributed the painful uncertainty, which to this day hangs over the
+early ages of Roman history.
+
+Fabius Pictor lived in the time of the second Punic war. The family
+received its _cognomen_ from Caius Fabius, who, having resided in Etruria,
+and there acquired some knowledge of the fine arts, painted with figures
+the temple of _Salus_, in the year 450(137). Pliny mentions having seen
+this piece of workmanship, which remained entire till the building itself
+was consumed, in the reign of the Emperor Claudius. The son of the painter
+rose to the highest honours of the state, having been Consul along with
+Ogulnius Gallus, in the year 485. From him sprung the historian, who was
+consequently grandson of the first Fabius Pictor. He was a provincial
+quæstor in early youth, and in 528 served under the Consul Lucius Æmilius,
+when sent to repel a formidable incursion of the Gauls, who, in that year,
+had passed the Alps in vast hordes. He also served in the second Punic
+war, which commenced in 534, and was present at the battle of Thrasymene.
+After the defeat at Cannæ, he was despatched by the senate to inquire from
+the oracle of Delphos, what would be the issue of the war, and to learn by
+what supplications the wrath of the gods might be appeased(138).
+
+The Annals of Fabius Pictor commenced with the foundation of the city, and
+brought down the series of Roman affairs to the author’s own time—that is,
+to the end of the second Punic war. We are informed by Dionysius of
+Halicarnassus, that for the great proportion of events which preceded his
+own age, Fabius Pictor had no better authority than vulgar tradition(139).
+He probably found, that if he had confined himself to what was certain in
+these early times, his history would have been dry, insipid, and
+incomplete. This may have induced him to adopt the fables, which the Greek
+historians had invented concerning the origin of Rome, and to insert
+whatever he found in the family traditions, however contradictory or
+uncertain. Dionysius has also given us many examples of his improbable
+narrations—his inconsistencies—his negligence in investigating the truth
+of what he relates as facts—and his inaccuracy in chronology. “I cannot
+refrain,” says he, when speaking of the age of Tarquinius Priscus, “from
+blaming Fabius Pictor for his little exactness in chronology(140);” and it
+appears from various other passages, that all the ancient history of
+Fabius which was not founded on hearsay, was taken from Greek authors, who
+had little opportunity of being informed of Roman affairs, and had
+supplied their deficiency in real knowledge, by the invention of fables.
+In particular, as we are told by Plutarch(141), he followed an obscure
+Greek author, Diocles the Peparethian, in his account of the foundation of
+Rome, and from this tainted source have flowed all the stories concerning
+Mars, the Vestal, the Wolf, Romulus, and Remus.
+
+It is thus evident, that no great reliance can be placed on the history
+given by Fabius Pictor, of the events which preceded his own age, and
+which happened during a period of 500 years from the building of the city;
+but what must be considered as more extraordinary and lamentable, is, that
+although a senator, and of a distinguished family, he gave a prejudiced
+and inaccurate account of affairs occurring during the time he lived, and
+in the management of which he had some concern. Polybius, who flourished
+shortly after that time, and was at pains to inform himself accurately
+concerning all the events of the second Punic war, apologizes for quoting
+Fabius on one occasion as an authority. “It will perhaps be asked,” says
+he, “how I came to make mention of Fabius: It is not that I think his
+relation probable enough to deserve credit: What he writes is so absurd,
+and has so little appearance of truth, that the reader will easily remark,
+without my taking notice of it, the little reliance that is to be placed
+on that author, whose inconsistency is palpable of itself. It is,
+therefore, only to warn such as shall read his history, not to judge by
+the title of the book, but by the things it contains—for there are many
+people, who, considering the author more than what he writes, think
+themselves obliged to believe everything he says, because a senator and
+contemporary(142).” Polybius also accuses him of gross partiality to his
+own nation, in the account of the Punic war—allowing to the enemy no
+praise, even where they deserved it, and uncandidly aggravating their
+faults.(143) In particular, he charges him with falsehood in what he has
+delivered, with regard to the causes of the second contest with the
+Carthaginians. Fabius had alleged, that the covetousness of Hannibal,
+which he inherited from Asdrubal, and his desire of ultimately ruling over
+his own country, to which he conceived a Roman war to be a necessary step,
+were the chief causes of renewing hostilities, to which the Carthaginian
+government was totally averse. Now, Polybius asks him, if this were true,
+why the Carthaginian Senate did not deliver up their general, as was
+required, after the capture of Saguntum; and why they supported him,
+during fourteen years continuance in Italy, with frequent supplies of
+money, and immense reinforcements(144).
+
+The sentiments expressed by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, concerning Fabius
+Pictor’s relation of events, in the early ages of Rome, and those of
+Polybius(145), on the occurrences of which he was himself an eye-witness,
+enable us to form a pretty accurate estimate of the credit due to his
+whole history. Dionysius having himself written on the antiquities of
+Rome, was competent to deliver an opinion as to the works of those who had
+preceded him in the same undertaking; and it would rather have been
+favourable to the general view which he has adopted, to have established
+the credibility of Fabius. We may also safely rely on the judgment which
+Polybius has passed, concerning this old annalist’s relation of the events
+of the age in which he lived, since Polybius had spared no pains to be
+thoroughly informed of whatever could render his own account of them
+complete and unexceptionable.
+
+The opinion which must now be naturally formed from the sentiments
+entertained by these two eminent historians, is rather confirmed by the
+few and unconnected fragments that remain of the Annals of Fabius Pictor,
+as they exhibit a spirit of trifling and credulity quite unworthy the
+historian of a great republic. One passage is about a person who saw a
+magpie; another about a man who had a message brought to him by a swallow;
+and a third concerning a party of _loup garous_, who, after being
+transformed into wolves, recovered their own figures, and, what is more,
+got back their cast-off clothes, provided they had abstained for nine
+years from preying on human flesh!
+
+Such were the merits of the earliest annalist of Rome, whom all succeeding
+historians of the state copied as far as he had proceeded, or at least
+implicitly followed as their authority and guide in facts and chronology.
+Unfortunately, his character as a senator, and an eye-witness of many of
+the events he recorded, gave the stamp of authenticity to his work, which
+it did not intrinsically deserve to have impressed on it. His successors
+accordingly, instead of giving themselves the pains to clear up the
+difficulties with which the history of former ages was embarrassed, and
+which would have led into long and laborious discussions, preferred
+reposing on the authority of Fabius. They copied him on the ancient times,
+without even consulting the few monuments that remained, and then
+contented themselves with adding the transactions subsequent to the period
+which his history comprehends. Thus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus(146)
+informs us that Cincius, Cato the Censor, Calpurnius Piso, and most of the
+other historians who succeeded him, implicitly adopted Fabius’ story of
+the birth and education of Romulus; and he adds many glaring instances of
+the little discernment they showed in following him on points where, by a
+little investigation, they might have discovered how egregiously he had
+erred. Even Livy himself admits, that his own account of the second Punic
+war was chiefly founded on the relations of Fabius Pictor(147).
+
+This ancient and dubious annalist was succeeded by Scribonius Libo, and by
+Calpurnius Piso. Libo served under Ser. Galba in Spain, and on his return
+to Rome impeached his commander for some act of treachery towards the
+natives of that province. Piso was Consul along with Mucius Scævola in
+620, the year in which Tib. Gracchus was slain. Like Fabius, he wrote
+Annals of Rome, from the beginning of the state, which Cicero pronounces
+to be _exiliter scripti_(148): But although his style was jejune, he is
+called a profound writer, _gravis auctor_, by Pliny(149); and Au. Gellius
+says, that there is an agreeable simplicity in some parts of his work—the
+brevity which displeased Cicero appearing to him _simplicissima suavitas
+et rei et orationis_(150). He relates an anecdote of Romulus, who, being
+abroad at supper, drank little wine, because he was to be occupied with
+important affairs on the following day. One of the other guests remarked,
+“that if all men did as he, wine would be cheap.”—“No,” replied Romulus,
+“I have drunk as much as I liked, and wine would be dearer than it is now
+if every one did the same.” This annalist first suggested Varro’s famous
+derivation of the word Italy, which he deduced from _Vitulus_. He is also
+frequently quoted by Plutarch and Dionysius of Halicarnassus(151). Niebuhr
+thinks, that of all the Roman annalists he is chiefly responsible for
+having introduced into history the fables of the ancient heroic
+ballads(152).
+
+About the same time with Piso, lived two historians, who were both called
+Caius Fannius, and were nearly related to each other. One of them was
+son-in-law of Lælius, and served under the younger Scipio at the final
+reduction of Carthage. Of him Cicero speaks favourably, though his style
+was somewhat harsh(153); but his chief praise is, that Sallust, in
+mentioning the Latin historians, while he gives to Cato the palm for
+conciseness, awards it to Fannius for accuracy in facts(154). Heeren also
+mentions, that he was the authority chiefly followed by Plutarch in his
+lives of the Gracchi(155).
+
+Cœlius Antipater was contemporary with the Gracchi, and was the master of
+Lucius Crassus, the celebrated orator, and other eminent men of the day.
+We learn from Valerius Maximus, that he was the authority for the story of
+the shade of Tiberius Gracchus having appeared to his brother Caius in a
+dream, to warn him that he would suffer the same fate which he had himself
+experienced(156); and the historian testifies that he had heard of this
+vision from many persons during the lifetime of Caius Gracchus. The chief
+subject of Antipater’s history, which was dedicated to Lælius, consisted
+in the events that occurred during the second Punic war. Cicero says, that
+he was for his age _Scriptor luculentus_(157); that he raised himself
+considerably above his predecessors, and gave a more lofty tone to
+history; but he seems to think that the utmost praise to which he was
+entitled, is, that he excelled those who preceded him, for still he
+possessed but little eloquence or learning, and his style was yet
+unpolished. Valerius Maximus, however, calls him an authentic writer,
+(_certus auctor_(158);) and the Emperor Hadrian thought him superior to
+Sallust, consistently with that sort of black-letter taste which led him
+to prefer Cato the Censor to Cicero, and Ennius to Virgil(159).
+
+Sempronius Asellio served as military tribune under the younger Scipio
+Africanus, in the war of Numantia(160), which began in 614, and ended in
+621, with the destruction of that city. He wrote the history of the
+campaigns in which he fought under Scipio, in Spain, in at least 40 books,
+since the 40th is cited by Charisius. His work, however, was not written
+for a considerable time after the events he recorded had happened: That he
+wrote subsequently to Antipater, we have the authority of Cicero, who says
+“that Cœlius Antipater was succeeded by Asellio, who did not imitate his
+improvements, but relapsed into the dulness and unskilfulness of the
+earliest historians(161).” This does not at all appear to have been
+Asellio’s own opinion, as, from a passage extracted by Aulus Gellius from
+the first book of his Annals, he seems to have considered himself as the
+undisputed father of philosophic history(162).
+
+Quintus Lutatius Catulus, better known as an accomplished orator than a
+historian, was Consul along with Marius in the year 651, and shared with
+him in his distinguished triumph over the Cimbrians. Though once united in
+the strictest friendship, these old colleagues quarrelled at last, during
+the civil war with Sylla; and Catulus, it is said, in order to avoid the
+emissaries despatched by the unrelenting Marius, to put him to death, shut
+himself up in a room newly plastered, and having kindled a fire, was
+suffocated by the noxious vapours. He wrote the history of his own
+consulship, and the various public transactions in which he had been
+engaged, particularly the war with the Cimbrians. Cicero(163), who has
+spoken so disadvantageously of the style of the older annalists, admits
+that Catulus wrote very pure Latin, and that his language had some
+resemblance to the sweetness of Xenophon.
+
+Q. Claudius Quadrigarius composed Annals of Rome in twenty-four books,
+which, though now almost entirely lost, were in existence as late as the
+end of the 12th century, being referred to by John of Salisbury in his
+book _De Nugis Curialibus_. Some passages, however, are still preserved,
+particularly the account of the defiance by the gigantic Gaul, adorned
+with a chain, to the whole Roman army, and his combat with Titus Manlius,
+afterwards sirnamed Torquatus, from this chain which he took from his
+antagonist. “Who the enemy was,” says Au. Gellius, “of how great and
+formidable stature, how audacious the challenge, and in what kind of
+battle they fought, Q. Claudius has told with much purity and elegance,
+and in the simple unadorned sweetness of ancient language(164).”
+
+There is likewise extant from these Annals the story of the Consul Q.
+Fabius Maximus making his father, who was then Proconsul, alight from his
+horse when he came out to meet him. We have also the letter of the Roman
+Consuls, Fabricius and Q. Emilius, to Pyrrhus, informing him of the
+treachery of his confident, Nicias, who had offered to the Romans to make
+away with his master for a reward. It merits quotation, as a fine example
+of ancient dignity and simplicity.—“Nos, pro tuis injuriis, continuo
+animo, strenue commoti, inimiciter tecum bellare studemus. Sed communis
+exempli et fidei ergo visum est, uti te salvum velimus; ut esset quem
+armis vincere possimus. Ad nos venit Nicias familiaris tuus, qui sibi
+pretium a nobis peteret, si te clam interfecisset: Id nos negavimus velle;
+neve ob eam rem quidquam commodi expectaret: Et simul visum est, ut te
+certiorem faceremus, nequid ejusmodi, si accidisset, nostro consilio
+putares factum: et, quid nobis non placet, pretio, aut premio, aut dolis
+pugnare.”—The Annals of Quadrigarius must at least have brought down the
+history to the civil wars of Marius and Sylla, since, in the nineteenth
+book, the author details the circumstances of the defence of the Piræus
+against Sylla, by Archelaus, the prefect of Mithridates. As to the style
+of these annals, Aulus Gellius reports, that they were written in a
+conversational manner(165).
+
+Quintus Valerius Antias also left Annals, which must have formed an
+immense work, since Priscian cites the seventy-fourth book. They commenced
+with the foundation of the city; but their accuracy cannot be relied on,
+as the author was much addicted to exaggeration. Livy, mentioning, on the
+authority of Antias, a victory gained by the Proconsul Q. Minucius, adds,
+while speaking of the number of slain on the part of the enemy, “Little
+faith can be given to this author, as no one was ever more intemperate in
+such exaggerations;” and Aulus Gellius mentions a circumstance which he
+had affirmed, contrary to the records of the Tribunes, and the authors of
+the ancient Annals(166). This history also seems to have been stuffed with
+the most absurd and superstitious fables. A nonsensical tale is told with
+regard to the manner in which Numa procured thunder from Jupiter; and
+stories are likewise related about the conflagration of the lake
+Thrasimene, before the defeat of the Roman Consul, and the flame which
+played round the head of Servius Tullius in his childhood. It also appears
+from him, that the Romans had judicial trials, as horrible as those of the
+witches which disgraced our criminal record. Q. Nævius, before setting out
+for Sardinia, held _Questions_ of incantation through the towns of Italy,
+and condemned to death, apparently without much investigation, not less
+than two thousand persons. This annalist denies, in another passage, the
+well-known story of the continence of Scipio, and alleges that the lady
+whom he is generally said to have restored to her lover, was “_in deliciis
+amoribusque usurpata_(167).” His opinion of the moral character of Scipio
+seems founded on some satirical verses of Nævius, with regard to a low
+intrigue in which he was detected in his youth. But whatever his private
+amours may have been, it does not follow that he was incapable of a signal
+exertion of generosity and continence in the presence of his army, and
+with the eyes of two great rival nations fixed upon his conduct.
+
+Licinius Macer, father of Licin. Calvus, the distinguished poet and orator
+formerly mentioned(168), was author of Annals, entitled _Libri Rerum
+Romanarum_. In the course of these he frequently quotes the _Libri
+Lintei_. He was not considered as a very impartial historian, and, in
+particular, he is accused by Livy of inventing stories to throw lustre
+over his own family.
+
+L. Cornelius Sisenna was the friend of Macer, and coeval with Antias and
+Quadrigarius; but he far excelled his contemporaries, as well as
+predecessors, in the art of historical narrative. He was of the same
+family as Sylla, the dictator, and was descended from that Sisenna who was
+Prætor in 570. In his youth he practised as an orator, and is
+characterized by Cicero as a man of learning and wit, but of no great
+industry or knowledge in business(169). In more advanced life he was
+Prætor of Achaia, and a friend of Atticus. Vossius says his history
+commenced after the taking of Rome by the Gauls, and ended with the wars
+of Marius and Sylla. Now, it is possible that he may have given some
+sketch of Roman affairs from the burning of the city by the Gauls, but it
+is evident he had touched slightly on these early portions of the history,
+for though his work consisted of twenty, or, according to others, of
+twenty-two books, it appears from a fragment of the second, which is still
+preserved, that he had there advanced in his narrative as far as the
+Social War, which broke out in the year 663. The greater part, therefore,
+I suspect, was devoted to the history of the civil wars of Marius; and
+indeed Velleius Paterculus calls his work _Opus Belli Civilis
+Sullani_(170). The great defect of his history consisted, it is said, in
+not being written with sufficient political freedom, at least concerning
+the character and conduct of Sylla, which is regretted by Sallust in a
+passage bearing ample testimony to the merits of Sisenna in other
+particulars.—“L. Sisenna,” says he, “optume et diligentissime omnium, qui
+eas res dixere persecutus, parum mihi libero ore locutus videtur(171).”
+Cicero, while he admits his superiority over his predecessors, adds, that
+he was far from perfection(172), and complains that there was something
+puerile in his Annals, as if he had studied none of the Greek historians
+but Clitarchus(173). I have quoted these opinions, since we must now
+entirely trust to the sentiments of others, in the judgment which we form
+of the merits of Sisenna; for although the fragments which remain of his
+history are more numerous than those of any other old Latin annalist,
+being about 150, they are also shorter and more unconnected. Indeed, there
+are scarcely two sentences anywhere joined together.
+
+The great defect, then, imputed to the class of annalists above
+enumerated, is the meagerness of their relations, which are stript of all
+ornament of style—of all philosophic observation on the springs or
+consequences of action—and all characteristic painting of the actors
+themselves. That they often perverted the truth of history, to dignify the
+name of their country at the expense of its foes, is a fault common to
+them with many national historians—that they sometimes exalted one
+political faction or chief to depreciate another, was almost unavoidable
+amid the anarchy and civil discord of Rome—that they were credulous in the
+extreme, in their relations of portents and prodigies, is a blemish from
+which their greater successors were not exempted: The easy faith of Livy
+is well known. Even the philosophic Tacitus seems to give credit to those
+presages, which darkly announced the fate of men and empires; and Julius
+Obsequens, a grave writer in the most enlightened age of Rome, collected
+in one work all the portents observed from its foundation to the age of
+Augustus.
+
+The period in which the ancient annalists flourished, also produced
+several biographical works; and these being lives of men distinguished in
+the state, may be ranked in the number of histories.
+
+Lucius Emilius Scaurus, who was born in 591, and died in 666, wrote
+memoirs of his own life, which Tacitus says were accounted faithful and
+impartial. They are unfortunately lost, but their matter may be
+conjectured from the well-known incidents of the life of Scaurus. They
+embraced a very eventful period, and were written without any flagrant
+breach of truth. We learn from Cicero, that these memoirs, however useful
+and instructive, were little read, even in his days, though his
+contemporaries carefully studied the Cyropædia; a work, as he continues,
+no doubt sufficiently elegant, but not so connected with our affairs, nor
+in any respect to be preferred to the merits of Scaurus(174).
+
+Rutilius Rufus, who was Consul in the year 649, also wrote memoirs of his
+own life. He was a man of very different character from Scaurus, being of
+distinguished probity in every part of his conduct, and possessing, as we
+are informed by Cicero, something almost of sanctity in his demeanour. All
+this did not save him from an unjust exile, to which he was condemned, and
+which he passed in tranquillity at Smyrna. These biographical memoirs
+being lost, we know their merits only from the commendations of Livy(175),
+Plutarch(176), Velleius Paterculus(177), and Valerius Maximus(178). As the
+author served under Scipio in Spain—under Scævola in Asia, and under
+Metellus in his campaign against Jugurtha, the loss of this work is
+severely to be regretted.
+
+But the want of Sylla’s Memoirs of his own Life, and of the affairs in
+which he had himself been engaged, is still more deeply to be lamented
+than the loss of those of Scaurus or Rutilius Rufus. These memoirs were
+meant to have been dedicated to Lucullus, on condition that he should
+arrange and correct them(179). Sylla was employed on them the evening
+before his death, and concluded them by relating, that on the preceding
+night he had seen in a dream one of his children, who had died a short
+while before, and who, stretching out his hand, showed to him his mother
+Metella, and exhorted him forthwith to leave the cares of life, and hasten
+to enjoy repose along with them in the bosom of eternal rest. “Thus,” adds
+the author, who accounted nothing so certain as what was signified to him
+in dreams, “I finish my days, as was predicted to me by the Chaldeans, who
+announced that I should surmount envy itself by my glory, and should have
+the good fortune to fall in the full blossom of my prosperity(180).” These
+memoirs were sent by Epicadus, the freedman of Sylla, to Lucullus, in
+order that he might put to them the finishing hand. If preserved, they
+would have thrown much light on the most important affairs of Roman
+history, as they proceeded from the person who must, of all others, have
+been the best informed concerning them. They are quoted by Plutarch as
+authority for many curious facts, as—that in the great battle by which the
+Cimbrian invasion was repelled, the chief execution was done in that
+quarter where Sylla was stationed; the main body, under Marius, having
+been misled by a cloud of dust, and having in consequence wandered about
+for a long time without finding the enemy(181). Plutarch also mentions
+that, in these Commentaries, the author contradicted the current story of
+his seeking refuge during a tumult at the commencement of the civil wars
+with Marius, in the house of his rival, who, it had been reported,
+sheltered and dismissed him in safety. Besides their importance for the
+history of events, the Memoirs of Sylla must have been highly interesting,
+as developing, in some degree, the most curious character in Roman
+history. “In the loss of his Memoirs,” says Blackwell, in his usual
+inflated style, “the strongest draught of human passions, in the highest
+wheels of fortune and sallies of power, is for ever vanished(182).” The
+character of Cæsar, though greater, was less incomprehensible than that of
+Sylla; and the mind of Augustus, though unfathomable to his
+contemporaries, has been sounded by the long line of posterity; but it is
+difficult to analyse the disposition which inspired the inconsistent
+conduct of Sylla. Gorged with power, and blood, and vengeance, he seems to
+have retired from what he chiefly coveted, as if surfeited; but neither
+this retreat, nor old age, could mollify his heart; nor could disease, or
+the approach of death, or the remembrance of his past life, disturb his
+tranquillity. No part of his existence was more strange than its
+termination; and nothing can be more singular than that he, who, on the
+day of his decease, caused in mere wantonness a provincial magistrate to
+be strangled in his presence, should, the night before, have enjoyed a
+dream so elevated and tender. It is probable that the Memoirs were well
+written, in point of style, as Sylla loved the arts and sciences, and was
+even a man of some learning, though Cæsar is reported to have said, on
+hearing his literary acquirements extolled, that he must have been but an
+indifferent scholar who had resigned a dictatorship.
+
+The characteristic of most of the annals and memoirs which I have hitherto
+mentioned, was extreme conciseness. Satisfied with collecting a mass of
+facts, their authors adopted a style which, in the later ages of Rome,
+became proverbially meagre and jejune. Cicero includes Claudius
+Quadrigarius and Asellio in the same censure which he passes on their
+predecessors, Fabius Pictor, Piso, and Fannius. But though, perhaps,
+equally barren in style, much greater trust and reliance may be placed on
+the annalists of the time of Marius and Sylla than of the second Punic
+war.
+
+Some of these more modern annalists wrote the History of Rome from the
+commencement of the state; others took up the relation from the burning of
+Rome by the Gauls, or confined themselves to events which had occurred in
+their own time. Their narratives of all that passed before the incursion
+of the Gauls, were indeed as little authentic as the relations of Fabius
+Pictor, since they implicitly followed that writer, and made no new
+researches into the mouldering monuments of their country. But their
+accounts of what happened subsequently to the rebuilding of Rome, are not
+liable to the same suspicion and uncertainty; the public monuments and
+records having, from that period, been duly preserved, and having been in
+greater abundance than those of almost any other nation in the history of
+the world. The Roman authors possessed all the auxiliaries which aid
+historical compilation—decrees of the senate, chiefly pronounced in
+affairs of state—leagues with friendly nations—terms of the surrender of
+cities—tables of triumphs, and treaties, which were carefully preserved in
+the treasury or in temples. There were even rolls kept of the senators and
+knights, as also of the number of the legions and ships employed in each
+war; but the public despatches addressed to the Senate by commanders of
+armies, of which we have specimens in Cicero’s Epistles, were the
+documents which must have chiefly aided historical composition. These were
+probably accurate, as the Senate, and people in general, were too well
+versed in military affairs to have been easily deluded, and legates were
+often commissioned by them to ascertain the truth of the relations. The
+immense multitude of such documents is evinced by the fact, that
+Vespasian, when restoring the Capitol, found in its ruins not fewer than
+3000 brazen tablets, containing decrees of the Senate and people,
+concerning leagues, associations, and immunities to whomsoever granted,
+from an early period of the state, and which Suetonius justly styles,
+_instrumentum imperii pulcherrimum ac vetustissimum_(183). Accordingly,
+when the later annalists came to write of the affairs of their own time,
+they found historical documents more full and satisfactory than those of
+almost any other country. But, in addition to these copious sources of
+information, it will be remarked, that the annalists themselves had often
+personal knowledge of the facts they related. It is true, indeed, that
+historians contemporary with the events which they record, are not always
+best qualified to place them in an instructive light, since, though they
+may understand how they spring out of prior incidents, they cannot foresee
+their influence on future occurrences. Of some things, the importance is
+overrated, and of others undervalued, till time, which has the same effect
+on events as distance on external objects, obscures all that is minute,
+while it renders the outlines of what is vast more distinct and
+perceptible. But though the reach of a contemporary historian’s mind may
+not extend to the issue of the drama which passes before him, he is no
+doubt best aware of the detached incidents of each separate scene and act,
+and most fitted to detail those particulars which posterity may combine
+into a mass, exhibiting at one view the grandeur and interest of the
+whole. Now, it will have been remarked from the preceding pages, that all
+the Roman annalists, from the time of Fabius Pictor to Sylla, were Consuls
+and Prætors, commanders of armies, or heads of political parties, and
+consequently the principal sharers in the events which they recorded. In
+Greece, there was an earlier separation than at Rome, between an active
+and a speculative life. Many of the Greek historians had little part in
+those transactions, the remembrance of which they have transmitted. They
+wrote at a distance, as it were, from the scene of affairs, so that they
+contemplated the wars and dissensions of their countrymen with the
+unprejudiced eye of a foreigner, or of posterity. This naturally diffuses
+a calm philosophic spirit over the page of the historian, and gives
+abundant scope for conjecture concerning the motives and springs of
+action. The Roman annalists, on the other hand, wrote from perfect
+knowledge and remembrance; they were the persons who had planned and
+executed every project; they had fought the battles they described, or
+excited the war, the vicissitudes of which they recorded. Hence the facts
+which their pages disclosed, might have borne the genuine stamp of truth,
+and the analysis of the motives and causes of actions might have been
+absolute revelations. Yet, under these, the most favourable circumstances
+for historic composition, prejudices from which the Greek historians were
+exempt, would unconsciously creep in: Writers like Sylla or Æmilius
+Scaurus, had much to extenuate, and strong temptations to set down much in
+malice(184).
+
+Nor is it always sufficient to have witnessed a great event in order to
+record it well, and with that fulness which converts it into a lesson in
+legislation, ethics, or politics. Now, the Roman annals had hitherto been
+chiefly a dry register of facts, what Lord Bolingbroke calls the _Nuntia
+Vetustatis_, or Gazette of Antiquity. A history properly so termed, and
+when considered as opposed to such productions, forms a complete series of
+transactions, accompanied by a deduction of their immediate and remote
+causes, and of the consequences by which they were attended,—all related,
+in their full extent, with such detail of circumstances as transports us
+back to the very time, makes us parties to the counsels, and actors, as it
+were, in the whole scene of affairs. It is then alone that history becomes
+the _magistra vitæ_; and in this sense
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 SALLUST
+
+
+has been generally considered as the first among the Romans who merited
+the title of historian. This celebrated writer was born at Amiternum, in
+the territory of the Sabines, in the year 668. He received his education
+at Rome, and, in his early youth, appears to have been desirous to devote
+himself to literary pursuits. But it was not easy for one residing in the
+capital to escape the contagious desire of military or political
+distinction. At the age of twenty-seven, he obtained the situation of
+Quæstor, which entitled him to a seat in the Senate, and about six years
+afterwards he was elected Tribune of the people. While in this office, he
+attached himself to the fortunes of Cæsar, and along with one of his
+colleagues in the tribunate, conducted the prosecution against Milo for
+the murder of Clodius. In the year 704, he was excluded from the Senate,
+on pretext of immoral conduct, but more probably from the violence of the
+patrician party, to which he was opposed. Aulus Gellius, on the authority
+of Varro’s treatise, _Pius aut de Pace_, informs us that he incurred this
+disgrace in consequence of being surprised in an intrigue with Fausta, the
+wife of Milo, by the husband, who made him be scourged by his slaves(185).
+It has been doubted, however, by modern critics, whether it was the
+historian Sallust who was thus detected and punished, or his nephew,
+Crispus Sallustius, to whom Horace has addressed the second ode of the
+second book. It seems, indeed, unlikely, that in such a corrupt age, an
+amour with a woman of Fausta’s abandoned character, should have been the
+real cause of his expulsion from the Senate. After undergoing this
+ignominy, which, for the present, baffled all his hopes of preferment, he
+quitted Rome, and joined his patron, Cæsar, in Gaul. He continued to
+follow the fortunes of that commander, and, in particular bore a share in
+the expedition to Africa, where the scattered remains of Pompey’s party
+had united. That region being finally subdued, Sallust was left by Cæsar
+as Prætor of Numidia; and about the same time he married Terentia, the
+divorced wife of Cicero. He remained only a year in his government, but
+during that period he enriched himself by despoiling the province. On his
+return to Rome, he was accused by the Numidians, whom he had plundered,
+but escaped with impunity, by means of the protection of Cæsar, and was
+quietly permitted to betake himself to a luxurious retirement with his
+ill-gotten wealth. He chose for his favourite retreat a villa at Tibur,
+which had belonged to Cæsar; and he also built a magnificent palace in the
+suburbs of Rome, surrounded by delightful pleasure-grounds, which were
+afterwards well known and celebrated by the name of the Gardens of
+Sallust. One front of this splendid mansion faced the street, where he
+constructed a spacious market-place, in which every article of luxury was
+sold in abundance. The other front looked to the gardens, which were
+contiguous to those of Lucullus, and occupied the valley between the
+extremities of the Quirinal and Pincian Hills(186). They lay, in the time
+of Sallust, immediately beyond the walls of Rome, but were included within
+the new wall of Aurelian. In them every beauty of nature, and every
+embellishment of art, that could delight or gratify the senses, seem to
+have been assembled. Umbrageous walks, open parterres, and cool porticos,
+displayed their various attractions. Amidst shrubs and flowers of every
+hue and odour, interspersed with statues of the most exquisite
+workmanship, pure streams of water preserved the verdure of the earth and
+the temperature of the air; and while, on the one hand, the distant
+prospect caught the eye, on the other, the close retreat invited to repose
+or meditation(187). These gardens included within their precincts the most
+magnificent baths, a temple to Venus, and a circus, which Sallust repaired
+and ornamented. Possessed of such attractions, the Sallustian palace and
+gardens became, after the death of their original proprietor, the
+residence of successive emperors. Augustus chose them as the scene of his
+most sumptuous entertainments. The taste of Vespasian preferred them to
+the palace of the Cæsars. Even the virtuous Nerva, and stern Aurelian,
+were so attracted by their beauty, that, while at Rome, they were their
+constant abode. “The palace,” says Eustace, “was consumed by fire on the
+fatal night when Alaric entered the city. The temple, of singular beauty,
+sacred to Venus, was discovered about the middle of the sixteenth century,
+in opening the grounds of a garden, and was destroyed for the sale of the
+materials: Of the circus little remains, but masses of walls that merely
+indicate its site; while statues and marbles, found occasionally, continue
+to furnish proofs of its former magnificence(188).” Many statues of
+exquisite workmanship have been found on the same spot; but these may have
+been placed there by the magnificence of the imperial occupiers, and not
+of the original proprietor.
+
+In his urban gardens, or villa at Tibur, Sallust passed the close of his
+life, dividing his time between literary avocations and the society of his
+friends—among whom he numbered Lucullus, Messala, and Cornelius Nepos.
+
+Such having been his friends and studies, it seems highly improbable that
+he indulged in that excessive libertinism which has been attributed to
+him, on the erroneous supposition that he was the Sallust mentioned by
+Horace, in the first book of his Satires(189). The subject of Sallust’s
+character is one which has excited some investigation and interest, and on
+which very different opinions have been formed. That he was a man of loose
+morals is evident; and it cannot be denied that he rapaciously plundered
+his province, like other Roman governors of the day. But it seems doubtful
+if he was that monster of iniquity he has been sometimes represented. He
+was extremely unfortunate in the first permanent notice taken of his
+character by his contemporaries. The decided enemy of Pompey and his
+faction, he had said of that celebrated chief, in his general history,
+that he was a man “oris probi, animo inverecundo.” Lenæus, the freedman of
+Pompey, avenged his master, by the most virulent abuse of his enemy(190),
+in a work, which should rather be regarded as a frantic satire than an
+historical document. Of the injustice which he had done to the life of the
+historian we may, in some degree, judge, from what he said of him as an
+author. He called him, as we learn from Suetonius, “Nebulonem, vitâ
+scriptisque monstrosum: præterea, priscorum Catonisque ineruditissimum
+furem.” The life of Sallust, by Asconius Pedianus, which was written in
+the age of Augustus, and might have acted, in the present day, as a
+corrective, or palliative, of the unfavourable impression produced by this
+injurious libel, has unfortunately perished; and the next work on the
+subject now extant, is a professed rhetorical declamation against the
+character of Sallust, which was given to the world in the name of Cicero,
+but was not written till long after the death of that orator, and is now
+generally assigned by critics, to a rhetorician, in the reign of Claudius,
+called Porcius Latro. The calumnies invented or exaggerated by Lenæus, and
+propagated in the scholiastic theme of Porcius Latro, have been adopted by
+Le Clerc, professor of Hebrew at Amsterdam, and by Professor Meisner, of
+Prague(191), in their respective accounts of the Life of Sallust. His
+character has received more justice from the prefatory Memoir and Notes of
+De Brosses, his French translator, and from the researches of Wieland in
+Germany.
+
+From what has been above said of Fabius Pictor, and his immediate
+successors, it must be apparent, that the art of historic composition at
+Rome was in the lowest state, and that Sallust had no model to imitate
+among the writers of his own country. He therefore naturally recurred to
+the productions of the Greek historians. The native exuberance, and
+loquacious familiarity of Herodotus, were not adapted to his taste; and
+simplicity, such as that of Xenophon, is, of all things, the most
+difficult to attain: He therefore chiefly emulated Thucydides, and
+attempted to transplant into his own language the vigour and conciseness
+of the Greek historian; but the strict imitation, with which he has
+followed him, has gone far to lessen the effect of his own original
+genius.
+
+The first book of Sallust was the _Conspiracy of Catiline_. There exists,
+however, some doubt as to the precise period of its composition. The
+general opinion is, that it was written immediately after the author went
+out of office as Tribune of the People, that is, in the year 703: And the
+composition of the _Jugurthine War_, as well as of his general history,
+are fixed by Le Clerc between that period and his appointment to the
+Prætorship of Numidia. But others have supposed that they were all written
+during the space which intervened between his return from Numidia, in 708,
+and his death, which happened in 718, four years previous to the battle of
+Actium. It is maintained by the supporters of this last idea, that he was
+too much engaged in political tumults previous to his administration of
+Numidia, to have leisure for such important compositions—that, in the
+introduction to Catiline’s Conspiracy, he talks of himself as withdrawn
+from public affairs, and refutes accusations of his voluptuous life, which
+were only applicable to this period; and that, while instituting the
+comparison between Cæsar and Cato, he speaks of the existence and
+competition of these celebrated opponents as things that had passed
+over—“Sed mea memoria, ingenti virtute, diversis moribus, fuere viri duo,
+Marcus Cato et Caius Cæsar.” On this passage, too, Gibbon in particular
+argues, that such a flatterer and party tool as Sallust would not, during
+the life of Cæsar, have put Cato so much on a level with him in the
+comparison instituted between them. De Brosses agrees with Le Clerc in
+thinking that the Conspiracy of Catiline at least must have been written
+immediately after 703, as Sallust would not, subsequently to his marriage
+with Terentia, have commemorated the disgrace of her sister, for she, it
+seems, was the vestal virgin whose intrigue with Catiline is recorded by
+our historian. But whatever may be the fact as to Catiline’s Conspiracy,
+it is quite clear that the Jugurthine War was written subsequent to the
+author’s residence in Numidia, which evidently suggested to him this
+theme, and afforded him the means of collecting the information necessary
+for completing his work.
+
+The subjects chosen by Sallust form two of the most important and
+prominent topics in the history of Rome. The periods, indeed, which he
+describes, were painful, but they were interesting. Full of conspiracies,
+usurpations, and civil wars, they chiefly exhibit the mutual rage and
+iniquity of embittered factions, furious struggles between the patricians
+and plebeians, open corruption in the senate, venality in the courts of
+justice, and rapine in the provinces. This state of things, so forcibly
+painted by Sallust, produced the Conspiracy, and even in some degree
+formed the character of Catiline: But it was the oppressive debts of
+individuals, the temper of Sylla’s soldiers, and the absence of Pompey
+with his army, which gave a possibility, and even prospect of success to a
+plot which affected the vital existence of the commonwealth, and which,
+although arrested in its commencement, was one of those violent shocks
+which hasten the fall of a state. The History of the Jugurthine War, if
+not so important or menacing to the vital interests and immediate safety
+of Rome, exhibits a more extensive field of action, and a greater theatre
+of war. No prince, except Mithridates, gave so much employment to the arms
+of the Romans. In the course of no war in which they had ever been
+engaged, not even the second Carthaginian, were the people more
+desponding, and in none were they more elated with ultimate success.
+Nothing can be more interesting than the account of the vicissitudes of
+this contest. The endless resources, and hair-breadth escapes of
+Jugurtha—his levity, his fickle faithless disposition, contrasted with the
+perseverance and prudence of the Roman commander, Metellus, are all
+described in a manner the most vivid and picturesque.
+
+Sallust had attained the age of twenty-two when the conspiracy of Catiline
+broke out, and was an eyewitness of the whole proceedings. He had
+therefore, sufficient opportunity of recording with accuracy and truth the
+progress and termination of the conspiracy. Sallust has certainly acquired
+the praise of a veracious historian, and I do not know that he has been
+detected in falsifying any fact within the sphere of his knowledge. Indeed
+there are few historical compositions of which the truth can be proved on
+such evidence as the Conspiracy of Catiline. The facts detailed in the
+orations of Cicero, though differing in some minute particulars, coincide
+in everything of importance, and highly contribute to illustrate and
+verify the work of the historian. But Sallust lived too near the period of
+which he treated, and was too much engaged in the political tumults of the
+day, to give a faithful account, unvarnished by animosity or predilection;
+he could not have raised himself above all hopes, fears, and prejudices,
+and therefore could not in all their extent have fulfilled the duties of
+an impartial writer. A contemporary historian of such turbulent times
+would be apt to exaggerate through adulation, or conceal through fear, to
+instil the precepts not of the philosopher but partizan, and colour facts
+into harmony with his own system of patriotism or friendship. An
+obsequious follower of Cæsar, he has been accused of a want of candour in
+varnishing over the views of his patron; yet I have never been able to
+persuade myself that Cæsar was deeply engaged in the conspiracy of
+Catiline, or that a person of his prudence should have leagued with such
+rash associates, or followed so desperate an adventurer. But the chief
+objection urged against Sallust’s impartiality, is the feeble and
+apparently reluctant commendation which he bestows on Cicero, who is now
+acknowledged to have been the principal actor in detecting and frustrating
+the conspiracy. Though fond of displaying his talent for drawing
+characters, he exercises none of it on Cicero, whom he merely terms “homo
+egregius et optumus Consul,” which was but cold applause for one who had
+saved the commonwealth. It is true, that, in the early part of the
+history, praise, though sparingly bestowed, is not absolutely withheld.
+The election of Cicero to the Consulship is fairly attributed to the high
+opinion entertained of his capacity, which overcame the disadvantage of
+his obscure birth. The mode adopted for gaining over one of Catiline’s
+accomplices, and fixing his own wavering and disaffected colleague,—the
+dexterity manifested in seizing the Allobrogian deputies with the letters,
+and the irresistible effect produced, by confronting them with the
+conspirators, are attributed exclusively to Cicero. It is in the
+conclusion of these great transactions that the historian withholds from
+him his due share of applause, and contrives to eclipse him by always
+interposing the character of Cato, though it could not be unknown to any
+witness of the proceedings that Cato himself, and other senators, publicly
+hailed the Consul as the Father of his country, and that a public
+thanksgiving to the gods was decreed in his name, for having preserved the
+city from conflagration, and the citizens from massacre(192). This
+omission, which may have originated partly in enmity, and partly in
+disgust at the ill-disguised vanity of the Consul, has in all times been
+regarded as the chief defect, and even stain, in the history of the
+Catilinarian conspiracy.
+
+Although not an eye-witness of the war with Jugurtha Sallust’s situation
+as Prætor of Numidia, which suggested the composition, was favourable to
+the authority of the work, by affording opportunity of collecting
+materials and procuring information. He examined into the different
+accounts, written as well as traditionary, concerning the history of
+Africa(193), particularly the documents preserved in the archives of King
+Hiempsal, which he caused to be translated for his own use, and which
+proved peculiarly serviceable for his detailed description of the
+continent and inhabitants of Africa. He has been accused of showing, in
+this history, an undue partiality towards the character of Marius, and
+giving, for the sake of his favourite leader, an unfair account of the
+massacre at Vacca. But he appears to me to do even more than ample justice
+to Metellus, as he represents the war as almost finished by him previous
+to the arrival of Marius, though it was, in fact, far from being
+concluded.
+
+Veracity and fidelity are the chief, and, indeed, the indispensable duties
+of an historian. Of all the _ornaments_ of historic composition, it
+derives its chief embellishment from a graceful and perspicuous style.
+That of the early annalists, as we have already seen, was inelegant and
+jejune; but style came to be considered, in the progress of history, as a
+matter of primary importance. It is unfortunate, perhaps, that so much
+value was at length attached to it, since the ancient historians seldom
+gave their authorities, and considered the excellence of history as
+consisting in fine writing, more than in an accurate detail of facts.
+Sallust evidently regarded an elegant style as one of the chief merits of
+an historical work. His own style, on which he took so much pains, was
+carefully formed on that of Thucydides, whose manner of writing was in a
+great measure original, and, till the time of Sallust, peculiar to
+himself. The Roman has wonderfully succeeded in imitating the vigour and
+conciseness of the Greek historian, and infusing into his composition
+something of that dignified austerity, which distinguishes the works of
+his great model; but when I say that Sallust has imitated the conciseness
+of Thucydides, I mean the rapid and compressed manner in which his
+narrative is conducted,—in short, brevity of idea, rather than language.
+For Thucydides, although he brings forward only the principal idea, and
+discards what is collateral, yet frequently employs long and involved
+periods. Sallust, on the other hand, is abrupt and sententious, and is
+generally considered as having carried this sort of brevity to a vicious
+excess. The use of copulatives, either for the purpose of connecting his
+sentences with each other, or uniting the clauses of the same sentence, is
+in a great measure rejected. This omission produces a monotonous effect,
+and a total want of that flow and that variety, which are the principal
+charms of the historic period. Seneca accordingly talks of the “Amputatæ
+sententiæ, et verba ante expectatum cadentia(194),” which the practice of
+Sallust had rendered fashionable. Lord Monboddo calls his style
+incoherent, and declares that there is not one of his short and uniform
+sentences which deserves the name of a period; so that supposing each
+sentence were in itself beautiful, there is not variety enough to
+constitute fine writing.
+
+It was, perhaps, partly in imitation of Thucydides, that Sallust
+introduced into his history a number of words almost considered as
+obsolete, and which were selected from the works of the older authors of
+Rome, particularly Cato the Censor. It is on this point he has been
+chiefly attacked by Pollio, in his letters to Plancus. He has also been
+taxed with the opposite vice, of coining new words, and introducing Greek
+idioms; but the severity of judgment which led him to imitate the ancient
+and austere dignity of style, made him reject those sparkling ornaments of
+composition, which were beginning to infect the Roman taste, in
+consequence of the increasing popularity of the rhetoric schools of
+declamation, and the more frequent intercourse with Asia. On the whole, in
+the style of Sallust, there is too much appearance of study, and a want of
+that graceful ease, which is generally the effect of art, but in which art
+is nowhere discovered. The opinion of Sir J. Checke, as reported by Ascham
+in his _Schoolmaster_, contains a pretty accurate estimate of the merits
+of the style of Sallust. “Sir J. Checke said, that he could not recommend
+Sallust as a good pattern of style for young men, because in his writings
+there was more art than nature, and more labour than art; and in his
+labour, also, too much toil, as it were, with an uncontented care to write
+better than he could—a fault common to very many men. And, therefore, he
+doth not express the matter lively and naturally with common speech, as ye
+see Xenophon doth in Greek, but it is carried and driven forth
+artificially, after too learned a sort, as Thucydides doth in his
+orations. ‘And how cometh it to pass,’ said I, ‘that Cæsar’s and Cicero’s
+talk is so natural and plain, and Sallust’s writing so artificial and
+dark, when all the three lived in one time?’—‘I will freely tell you my
+fancy herein,’ said he; ‘Cæsar and Cicero, beside a singular prerogative
+of natural eloquence given unto them by God, were both, by use of life,
+daily orators among the common people, and greatest councillors in the
+Senate-house; and therefore gave themselves to use such speech as the
+meanest should well understand, and the wisest best allow, following
+carefully that good council of Aristotle, _Loquendum ut multi; sapiendum
+ut pauci_. But Sallust was no such man.’ ”
+
+Of all departments of history, the delineation of character is that which
+is most trying to the temper and impartiality of the writer, more
+especially when he has been contemporary with the individuals he portrays,
+and in some degree engaged in the transactions he records. Five or six of
+the characters drawn by Sallust have in all ages been regarded as
+masterpieces: He has seized the delicate shades, as well as the prominent
+features, and thrown over them the most lively and appropriate colouring.
+Those of the two principal actors in his tragic histories are forcibly
+given, and prepare us for the incidents which follow. The portrait drawn
+of Catiline conveys a vivid idea of his mind and person,—his profligate
+untameable spirit, infinite resources, unwearied application, and
+prevailing address. We behold, as it were, before us the deadly paleness
+of his countenance, his ghastly eye, his unequal troubled step, and the
+distraction of his whole appearance, strongly indicating the restless
+horror of a guilty conscience. I think, however, it might have been
+instructive and interesting had we seen something more of the atrocities
+perpetrated in early life by this chief conspirator. The historian might
+have shown him commencing his career as the chosen favourite of Sylla, and
+the instrument of his monstrous cruelties. The notice of the other
+conspirators is too brief, and there is too little discrimination of their
+characters. Perhaps the outline was the same in all, but each might have
+been individuated by distinctive features. The parallel drawn between Cato
+and Cæsar is one of the most celebrated passages in the history of the
+conspiracy. Of both these famed opponents we are presented with favourable
+likenesses. Their defects are thrown into shade; and the bright qualities
+of each different species which distinguished them, are contrasted for the
+purpose of showing the various merits by which men arrive at eminence.
+
+The introductory sketch of the genius and manners of Jugurtha is no less
+able and spirited than the character of Catiline. We behold him, while
+serving under Scipio, as brave, accomplished, and enterprizing; but imbued
+with an ambition, which, being under no control of principle, hurried him
+into its worst excesses, and rendered him ultimately perfidious and cruel.
+The most singular part of his character was the mixture of boldness and
+irresolution which it combined; but the lesson we receive from it, lies in
+the miseries of that suspicion and that remorse which he had created in
+his own mind by his atrocities, and which rendered him as wretched on the
+throne, or at the head of his army, as in the dungeon where he terminated
+his existence. The portraits of the other principal characters, who
+figured in the Jugurthine War, are also well brought out. That of Marius,
+in particular, is happily touched. His insatiable ambition is artfully
+disguised under the mask of patriotism,—his cupidity and avarice are
+concealed under that of martial simplicity and hardihood; but, though we
+know from his subsequent career the hypocrisy of his pretensions, the
+character of Marius is presented to us in a more favourable light than
+that in which it can be viewed on a survey of his whole life. We see the
+blunt and gallant soldier, and not that savage whose innate cruelty of
+soul was just about to burst forth for the destruction of his countrymen.
+In drawing the portrait of Sylla, the memorable rival of Marius, the
+historian represents him also such as he appeared at that period, not such
+as he afterwards proved himself to be. We behold him with pleasure as an
+accomplished and subtle commander, eloquent in speech, and versatile in
+resources; but there is no trace of the cold-blooded assassin, the tyrant,
+buffoon, and usurper.
+
+In general, Sallust’s painting of character is so strong, that we almost
+foresee how each individual will conduct himself in the situation in which
+he is placed. Tacitus attributes all the actions of men to policy,—to
+refined, and sometimes imaginary views; but Sallust, more correctly,
+discovers their chief springs in the passions and dispositions of
+individuals. “Salluste,” says St Evremond, “donne autant au naturel, que
+Tacite à la politique. Le plus grand soin du premier est de bien connoitre
+le génie des hommes; les affaires viennent après naturellement, par des
+actions peu recherchées de ces mêmes personnes qu’il a depeintes.”
+
+History, in its original state, was confined to narrative; the reader
+being left to form his own reflections on the deeds or events recorded.
+The historic art, however, conveys not complete satisfaction, unless these
+actions be connected with their causes,—the political springs, or private
+passions, in which they originated. It is the business, therefore, of the
+historian, to apply the conclusions of the politician in explaining the
+causes and effects of the transactions he relates. These transactions the
+author must receive from authentic monuments or records, but the remarks
+deduced from them must be the offspring of his own ingenuity. The
+reflections with which Sallust introduces his narrative, and those he
+draws from it, are so just and numerous that he has by some been
+considered as the father of philosophic history. It must always, however,
+be remembered, that the proper object of history is the detail of national
+transactions,—that whatever forms not a part of the narrative is
+episodical, and therefore improper, if it be too long, and do not grow
+naturally out of the subject. Now, some of the political and moral
+digressions of Sallust are neither very immediately connected with his
+subject, nor very obviously suggested by the narration. The discursive
+nature and inordinate length of the introductions to his histories have
+been strongly censured. The first four sections of Catiline’s conspiracy
+have indeed little relation to that topic. They might as well have been
+prefixed to any other history, and much better to a moral or philosophic
+treatise. In fact, a considerable part of them, descanting on the fleeting
+nature of wealth and beauty, and all such adventitious or transitory
+possessions, is borrowed from the second oration of Isocrates. Perhaps the
+eight following sections are also disproportioned to the length of the
+whole work; but the preliminary essay they contain, on the degradation of
+Roman manners and decline of virtue, is not an unsuitable introduction to
+the conspiracy, as it was this corruption of morals which gave birth to
+it, and bestowed on it a chance of success. The preface to the Jugurthine
+War has much less relation to the subject which it is intended to
+introduce. The author discourses at large on his favourite topics the
+superiority of mental endowments over corporeal advantages, and the beauty
+of virtue and genius. He contrasts a life of listless indolence with one
+of honourable activity; and, finally, descants on the task of the
+historian as a suitable exercise for the highest faculties of the mind.
+
+Besides the conspiracy of Catiline and the Jugurthine War, which have been
+preserved entire, and from which our estimate of the merits of Sallust
+must be chiefly formed, he was author of a civil and military history of
+the republic, in five books, entitled, _Historia rerum in Republica Romana
+Gestarum_. This work, inscribed to Lucullus, the son of the celebrated
+commander of that name, was the mature fruit of the genius of Sallust,
+having been the last history he composed. It included, properly speaking,
+only a period of thirteen years,—extending from the resignation of the
+dictatorship by Sylla, till the promulgation of the Manilian law, by which
+Pompey was invested with authority equal to that which Sylla had
+relinquished, and obtained, with unlimited power in the east, the command
+of the army destined to act against Mithridates. This period, though
+short, comprehends some of the most interesting and luminous points which
+appear in the Roman Annals. During this interval, and almost at the same
+moment, the republic was attacked in the east by the most powerful and
+enterprizing of the monarchs with whom it had yet waged war; in the west,
+by one of the most skilful of its own generals; and in the bosom of Italy,
+by its gladiators and slaves. This work also was introduced by two
+discourses—the one presenting a picture of the government and manners of
+the Romans, from the origin of their city to the commencement of the civil
+wars, the other containing a general view of the dissensions of Marius and
+Sylla; so that the whole book may be considered as connecting the
+termination of the Jugurthine war, and the breaking out of Catiline’s
+conspiracy. The loss of this valuable production is the more to be
+regretted, as all the accounts of Roman history which have been written,
+are defective during the interesting period it comprehended. Nearly 700
+fragments belonging to it have been amassed, from scholiasts and
+grammarians, by De Brosses, the French translator of Sallust; but they are
+so short and unconnected, that they merely serve as land-marks, from which
+we may conjecture what subjects were treated of, and what events were
+recorded. The only parts of the history which have been preserved in any
+degree entire, are four orations and two letters. Pomponius Lætus
+discovered the orations in a MS. of the Vatican, containing a collection
+of speeches from Roman history. The first is an oration pronounced against
+Sylla by the turbulent Marcus Æmilius Lepidus; who, (as is well known,)
+being desirous, at the expiration of his year, to be appointed a second
+time Consul, excited, for that purpose, a civil war, and rendered himself
+master of a great part of Italy. His speech which was preparatory to these
+designs, was delivered after Sylla had abdicated the dictatorship, but was
+still supposed to retain great influence at Rome. He is accordingly
+treated as being still the tyrant of the state; and the people are
+exhorted to throw off the yoke completely, and to follow the speaker to
+the bold assertion of their liberties. The second oration, which is that
+of Lucius Philippus, is an invective against the treasonable attempt of
+Lepidus, and was calculated to rouse the people from the apathy with which
+they beheld proceedings that were likely to terminate in the total
+subversion of the government. The third harangue was delivered by the
+Tribune Licinius: It was an effort of that demagogue to depress the
+patrician, and raise the tribunitial power, for which purpose he
+alternately flatters the people, and reviles the Senate. The oration of
+Marcus Cotta is unquestionably a fine one. He addressed it to the people,
+during the period of his Consulship, in order to calm their minds, and
+allay their resentment at the bad success of public affairs, which,
+without any blame on his part, had lately, in many respects, been
+conducted to an unprosperous issue. Of the two letters which are extant,
+the one is from Pompey to the Senate, complaining, in very strong terms,
+of the deficiency in the supplies for the army which he commanded in Spain
+against Sertorius; the other is feigned to be addressed from Mithridates
+to Arsaces, King of Parthia, and to be written when the affairs of the
+former monarch were proceeding unsuccessfully. It exhorts him,
+nevertheless, with great eloquence and power of argument, to join him in
+an alliance against the Romans: for this purpose, it places in a strong
+point of view their unprincipled policy, and ambitious desire of universal
+empire—all which could not, without this device of an imaginary letter by
+a foe, have been so well urged by a national historian. It concludes with
+showing the extreme danger which the Parthians would incur from the
+hostility of the Romans, should they succeed in finally subjugating Pontus
+and Armenia. The only other fragment, of any length, is the description of
+a splendid entertainment given to Metellus, on his return, after a year’s
+absence, to his government of Farther Spain. It appears, from several
+other fragments, that Sallust had introduced, on occasion of the
+Mithridatic war, a geographical account of the shores and countries
+bordering on the Euxine, in the same manner as he enters into a
+topographical description of Africa, in his history of the Jugurthine war.
+This part of his work has been much applauded by ancient writers for
+exactness and liveliness; and is frequently referred to, as the highest
+authority, by Strabo, Pomponius Mela, and other geographers.
+
+Besides his historical works, there exist two political discourses,
+concerning the administration of the government, in the form of letters to
+Julius Cæsar, which have generally, though not on sufficient grounds, been
+attributed to the pen of Sallust(195).
+
+As Sallust has obviously imitated, and, in fact, resembles Thucydides, so
+has
+
+
+
+
+
+                              JULIUS CÆSAR,
+
+
+in his historical works, been compared to Xenophon, the first memoir
+writer among the Greeks. Simplicity is the characteristic of both, but
+Xenophon has more rhetorical flow and sweetness of style, and he is
+sometimes, I think, a little mawkish; while the simplicity of Cæsar, on
+the other hand, borders, perhaps, on severity. Cæsar, too, though often
+circumstantial, is never diffuse, while Xenophon is frequently prolix,
+without being minute or accurate. “In the Latin work,” says Young, in his
+_History of Athens_, “we have the commentaries of a general vested with
+supreme command, and who felt no anxiety about the conduct or obedience of
+his army—in the Greek, we possess the journal of an officer in subordinate
+rank, though of high estimation. Hence the speeches of the one are replete
+with imperatorial dignity, those of the other are delivered with the
+conciliatory arts of argument and condescension. Hence, too, the mind of
+Xenophon was absorbed in the care and discipline of those under his
+command; but thence we are better acquainted with the Greek army than with
+that of Cæsar. Cæsar’s attention was ever directed to those he was to
+attack, to counteract, or to oppose—Xenophon’s to those he was to conduct.
+For the same reason, Xenophon is superficial with respect to any
+peculiarities of the nations he passed through; while in Cæsar we have a
+curious, and well authenticated detail, relative to the Gauls, the
+Britons, and every other enemy. The comparison, however, holds in this,
+that Cæsar, like Xenophon, was properly a writer of Memoirs. Like him, he
+aimed at nothing farther than communicating facts in a plain familiar
+manner; and the account of his campaign was only drawn up as materials for
+future history, not having leisure to bestow that ornament and dress which
+history requires.” In the opinion of his contemporaries, however, and all
+subsequent critics, he has rendered desperate any attempt to write the
+history of the wars of which he treats. “Dum voluit,” says Cicero, “alios
+habere parata, unde sumerent, qui vellent scribere historiam, sanos quidem
+homines a scribendo deterruit.” A similar opinion is given by his
+continuator Hirtius,—“Adeo probantur omnium judicio ut prærepta, non
+præbita, facultas scriptoribus videatur.”
+
+Cæsar’s Commentaries consist of seven books of the Gallic, and three of
+the civil wars. Some critics, however, particularly Floridus Sabinus(196),
+deny that he was the author of the books on the latter war, while Carrio
+and Ludovicus Caduceus doubt of his being the author even of the Gallic
+war,—the last of these critics attributing the work to Suetonius.
+Hardouin, who believed that most of the works now termed classical, were
+forgeries of the monks in the thirteenth century, also tried to persuade
+the world, that the whole account of the Gallic campaigns was a fiction,
+and that Cæsar had never drawn a sword in Gaul in his life. The testimony,
+however, of Cicero and Hirtius, who were contemporary with Cæsar,—of many
+authentic writers, who lived after him, as Suetonius, Strabo, and
+Plutarch,—and of all the old grammarians, must be considered as settling
+the question; for if such evidence is not implicitly trusted, there seems
+to be an end of all reliance on ancient authority.
+
+Though these Commentaries comprehend but a small extent of time, and are
+not the general history of a nation, they embrace events of the highest
+importance, and they detail, perhaps, the greatest military operations to
+be found in ancient story. We see in them all that is great and consummate
+in the art of war. The ablest commander of the most martial people on the
+globe records the history of his own campaigns. Placed at the head of the
+finest army ever formed in the world, and one devoted to his fortunes, but
+opposed by military skill and prowess only second to its own, he, and the
+soldiers he commanded, may be almost extolled in the words in which Nestor
+praised the heroes who had gone before him:—
+
+  “Καρτισοι δη κεινοι ἐπιχθονιων τραφεν ανδρων,
+  Καρτισοι μεν ἐσαν και καρτισοις ἐμαχοντο,” ——
+
+for the Gauls and Germans were among the bravest and most warlike nations
+then on earth, and Pompey was accounted the most consummate general of his
+age. No commander, it is universally admitted, ever had such knowledge of
+the mechanical part of war: He possessed the complete empire of the sea,
+and was aided by all the influence derived from the constituted authority
+of the state.
+
+Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole Commentaries, is the
+account of the campaign in Spain against Afranius and Petreius, in which
+Cæsar, being reduced to extremities for want of provisions and forage, (in
+consequence of the bridges over the rivers, between which he had encamped,
+being broken down,) extricated himself from this situation, after a
+variety of skilful manœuvres, and having pursued Pompey’s generals into
+Celtiberia, and back again to Lerida, forced their legions to surrender,
+by placing them in those very difficulties from which he had so ably
+relieved his own army.
+
+It is obvious that the greater part of such Commentaries must be
+necessarily occupied with the detail of warlike operations. The military
+genius of Rome breathes through the whole work, and it comprehends all the
+varieties which warfare offers to our interest, and perhaps, undue
+admiration—pitched battles, affairs of posts, encampments, retreats,
+marches in face of the foe through woods and over plains or mountains,
+passages of rivers, sieges, defence of forts, and those still more
+interesting accounts of the spirit and discipline of the enemies’ troops,
+and the talents of their generals. In his clear and scientific details of
+military operations, Cæsar is reckoned superior to every writer, except,
+perhaps, Polybius. Some persons have thought he was too minute, and that,
+by describing every evolution performed in a battle, he has rendered his
+relations somewhat crowded. But this was his principle, and it served the
+design of the author.
+
+As he records almost nothing at which he was not personally present, or
+heard of from those acting under his immediate directions, he possessed
+the best information with regard to everything of which he wrote(197). In
+general, when he speaks of himself, it is without affectation or
+arrogance. He talks of Cæsar as of an indifferent person, and always
+maintains the character which he has thus assumed; indeed, it can hardly
+be conceived that he had so small a share in the great actions he
+describes, as appears from his own representations. With exception of the
+false colours with which he disguises his ambitious projects against the
+liberties of his country, everything seems to be told with fidelity and
+candour. Nor is there any very unfair concealment of the losses he may
+have sustained: he ingenuously acknowledges his own disaster in the affair
+at Dyracchium; he admits the loss of 960 men, and the complete frustration
+of his whole plan for the campaign. When he relates his successes, on the
+other hand, it is with moderation. There is the utmost caution, reserve,
+and modesty, in his account of the battle of Pharsalia; and one would
+hardly conceive that the historian had any share in the action or victory.
+He in general acknowledges, that the events of war are beyond human
+control, and ascribes the largest share of success to the power of
+fortune. The rest he seems willing to attribute to the valour of his
+soldiers, and the good conduct of his military associates. Thus he gives
+the chief credit and glory of the great victory over Ariovistus to the
+presence of mind displayed by Crassus, who promptly made the signal to a
+body of men to advance and support one of the wings which was overpowered
+by the multitude of the enemy, and was beginning to give way. He does not
+even omit to do justice to the distinguished and generous valour of the
+two centurions, Pulfio and Varenus, or of the centurion Sextius Baculus,
+during the alarming attack by the Sicambri. On the other hand, when he has
+occasion to mention the failure of his friends, as in relating Curio’s
+defeat and death in Africa, he does it with tenderness and indulgence. Of
+his enemies, he speaks without insult or contempt; and even in giving his
+judgment upon a great military question, though he disapproves Pompey’s
+mode of waiting for the attack at Pharsalia, his own reasons for a
+contrary opinion are urged with deference and candour. The confident hopes
+which were entertained in Pompey’s camp—the pretensions and disputes of
+the leading senators, about the division of patronage and officers, and
+the confiscations which were supposed to be just falling within their
+grasp, furnished him with some amusing anecdotes, which it must have been
+difficult to resist inserting; nor can we wonder, that while all the
+preparations for celebrating the anticipated victory with luxury and
+festivity, were matters of ocular observation, he should have devoted some
+few passages in his Commentaries, to recording the vanity and presumption
+of such fond expectations. Labienus, who had deserted him, and Scipio, who
+gave him so much trouble, by rekindling the war, are those of whom he
+speaks with the greatest rancour, in relating the cruelty of the former,
+and the tyrannical ingenious rapacity of the latter(198).
+
+Whatever concerns the events of the civil war could not easily have been
+falsified or misrepresented. So many enemies, who had been eye-witnesses
+of everything, survived that period, that the author could scarcely have
+swerved from the truth without detection. But in his contests with the
+Gauls, and Germans, and Britons, there was no one to contradict him. Those
+who accompanied him were devoted to his fame and fortunes, and interested
+like himself in exalting the glory of these foreign exploits. That he has
+varnished over the real motives, and also the issue, of his expedition to
+Britain has been frequently suspected. The reason he himself assigns for
+the undertaking is, that he understood supplies had been thence furnished
+to the enemy, in almost all the Gallic wars; but Suetonius asserts, that
+the information he had received of the quantity and size of the pearls on
+the British coast, was his real inducement. Fourteen short chapters in the
+fourth book of the Gallic war, relate his first visit, and his hasty
+return; and sixteen in the fifth, detail his progress in the following
+summer. These chapters have derived importance from containing the
+earliest authentic memorials of the inhabitants and state of this island;
+and there has, of course, been much discussion on the genuine though
+imperfect notices they afford. Various tracts, chiefly published in the
+_Archæologia_, have topographically followed the various steps of Cæsar’s
+progress, particularly his passage across the Thames, and have debated the
+situation of the Portus Iccius, from which he embarked for Britain.
+
+Cæsar’s occasional digressions concerning the manners of the Gauls and
+Germans, are also highly interesting and instructive, and are the only
+accounts to be at all depended on with regard to the institutions and
+customs of these two great nations, at that remote period. In Gaul he had
+remained so long, and had so thoroughly studied the habits and customs of
+its people for his own political purposes, that whatever is delivered
+concerning that country, may be confidently relied on. His intercourse
+with the German tribes was occasional, and chiefly of a military
+description. Some of his observations on their manners—as their
+hospitality, the continence of their youth, and the successive occupation
+of different lands by the same families—are confirmed by Tacitus; but in
+other particulars, especially in what relates to their religion, he is
+contradicted by that great historian. Cæsar declares that they have no
+sacrifices, and know no gods, but those, like the Sun or Moon, which are
+visible, and whose benefits they enjoy(199). Tacitus informs us, that
+their chief god is Mercury, whom they appease by human victims; that they
+also sacrifice animals to Hercules and Mars; and adore that Secret
+Intelligence, which is only seen in the eye of mental veneration(200). The
+researches of modern writers have also thrown some doubts on the accuracy
+of Cæsar’s German topography; and Cluverius, in particular, has attempted
+to show, that he has committed many errors in speaking both of the Germans
+and Batavians(201).
+
+As the Commentaries of Cæsar do not pretend to the elaborate dignity of
+history, the author can scarcely be blamed if he has detailed his facts
+without mingling many reflections or observations. He seldom inserts a
+political or characteristic remark, though he had frequent opportunities
+for both, in describing such singular people as the Gauls, Germans, and
+Britons. But his object was not, like Sallust or Tacitus, to deduce
+practical reflections for the benefit of his reader, or to explain the
+political springs of the transactions he relates. His simple narrative was
+merely intended for the gratification of those Roman citizens, whom he had
+already persuaded to favour his ambitious projects; yet even they, I
+think, might have wished to have heard something more of what may be
+called the military motives of his actions. He tells us of his marches,
+retreats, and encampments, but seldom sufficiently explains the grounds on
+which these warlike measures were undertaken—how they advanced his own
+plans, or frustrated the designs of the enemy. More insight into the
+military views by which he was prompted, would have given additional
+interest and animation to his narrative, and afforded ampler lessons of
+instruction.
+
+No person, I presume, wishes to be told, for the twentieth time, that the
+style of Cæsar is remarkable for clearness and ease, and a simplicity more
+truly noble than the pomp of words. Perhaps the most distinguishing
+characteristic of his style, is its perfect equality of expression. There
+was, in the mind of Cæsar, a serene and even dignity. In temper, nothing
+appeared to agitate or move him—in conduct, nothing diverted him from the
+attainment of his end. In like manner, in his style, there is nothing
+swelling or depressed, and not one word occurs which is chosen for the
+mere purpose of embellishment. The opinion of Cicero, who compared the
+style of Cæsar to the unadorned simplicity of an ancient Greek statue, may
+be considered as the highest praise, since he certainly entertained no
+favourable feelings towards the author; and the style was very different
+from that which he himself employed in his harangues, or philosophical
+works, or even in his correspondence. “Nudi sunt,” says he, “recti, et
+venusti, omni ornatu orationis tanquam veste detracto.” This exquisite
+purity was not insensibly obtained, as the Lælian and Mucian Families are
+said to have acquired it, by domestic habit and familiar conversation, but
+by assiduous study and thorough knowledge of the Latin language(202), and
+the practice of literary composition, to which Cæsar had been accustomed
+from his earliest youth(203).
+
+But, however admirable for its purity and elegance, the style of Cæsar
+seems to be somewhat deficient, both in vivacity and vigour. Walchius,
+too, has pointed out a few words, which he considers not of pure Latinity,
+as _ambactus_, a term employed by the Gauls and Germans to signify a
+servant—also _Ancorarii_ funes, a word nowhere else used as an
+adjective—_Antemittere_ for _premittere_, and _summo magistratu præiverat_
+for _magistratui_(204). The use of such words as _collabefieret_,
+_contabulatio_, _detrimentosum_, _explicitius_, _materiari_, would lead us
+to suspect that Cæsar had not _always_ attended to the rule which he so
+strongly laid down in his book, _De Analogia_, to avoid, as a rock, every
+unusual word or expression. Bergerus, in an immense quarto, entitled _De
+Naturali pulchritudine Orationis_ has at great length attempted to show
+that Cæsar had anticipated all the precepts subsequently delivered by
+Longinus, for reaching the utmost excellence and dignity of composition.
+He points out his conformity to these rules, in what he conceives to be
+the abridgments, amplifications, transitions, gradations,—in short, all
+the various figures and ornaments of speech, which could be employed by
+the most pedantic rhetorician; and he also critically examines those few
+words and phrases of questionable purity, which are so thinly scattered
+through the Commentaries.
+
+Mankind usually judge of a literary composition by its intrinsic merit,
+without taking into consideration the age of the author, the celerity with
+which it was composed, or the various circumstances under which it was
+written; and in this, perhaps, they act not unjustly, since their business
+is with the work, and not with the qualities of the author. But were such
+things to be taken into view, it should be remembered, that these Memoirs
+were hastily drawn up during the tumult and anxiety of campaigns, and were
+jotted down from day to day, without care or premeditation. “Ceteri,” says
+Hirtius, the companion of Cæsar’s expeditions, and the continuator of his
+Commentaries,—“Ceteri quam bene atque emendate; nos etiam quam facile
+atque celeriter eos perscripserit scimus.”
+
+The Commentaries, _De Bello Gallico_, and _De Bello Civili_, are the only
+productions of Cæsar which remain to us. Several ancient writers speak of
+his _Ephemeris_, or Diary; but it has been doubted whether the work, so
+termed by Plutarch, Servius, Symmachus, and several others, be the same
+book as the Commentaries, or a totally different production. The former
+opinion is adopted by Fabricius, who thinks that _Ephemeris_, or
+_Ephemerides_, is only another name for the Commentaries, which in fact
+may be considered as having been written in the manner and form of a
+diary. He acknowledges, that several passages, cited by Servius, as taken
+from these _Ephemerides_, are not now to be found in the Commentaries; but
+then he maintains that there are evidently defects (_lacunæ_) in the
+latter work; and he conjectures that the words quoted by Servius are part
+of the lost passages of the Commentaries. This opinion is followed by
+Vossius, who cites a sort of Colophon at the end of one of the oldest MSS.
+of the Commentaries which he thinks decisive of the question, as it shows
+that the term _Ephemeris_ was currently applied to them.—“C. J. Cæsaris,
+P. M. Ephemeris rerum Gestarum Belli Gallici, Lib. VIII. explicit
+feliciter.”
+
+Bayle, in his Dictionary, has supported the opposite theory. He believes
+the _Ephemeris_ to have been a journal of the author’s life. He admits,
+that a passage which Plutarch quotes as from the _Ephemeris_, occurs also
+in the fourth book of the Commentaries; but then he maintains, that it was
+impossible for Cæsar not to have frequently mentioned the same thing in
+his Commentaries and Journal, and he thinks, that had Plutarch meant to
+allude to the former, he would have called them, not _Ephemeris_, but
+ὑπομνηματα as Strabo has termed them. Besides, Polyænus mentions divers
+warlike stratagems, as recorded by Cæsar, which are not contained in the
+Commentaries, and which, therefore, could have been explained only in the
+separate work _Ephemeris_.
+
+There are still some fragments remaining of the letters which Cæsar
+addressed to the Senate and his friends, and also of his orations, which
+were considered as inferior only to those of Cicero. Of his rhetorical
+talents, something may be hereafter said. It appears that his qualities as
+an orator and historian, were very different, since vehemence and the
+power of exciting emotion, (concitatio,) are mentioned as the
+characteristics of his harangues. Some of them were delivered in behalf of
+clients, and on real business, in the Forum; but the two orations entitled
+_Anticatones_ were merely written in the form and manner of accusations
+before a judicial tribunal. These rhetorical declamations, which were
+composed about the time of the battle of Munda, were intended as an answer
+to the laudatory work of Cicero, called _Laus Catonis_. The author
+particularly considered in them the last act of Cato at Utica, and has
+raked up all the vices and defects of his character, whether real or
+imputed, public or private,—his ambition, affectation of singularity,
+churlishness, and avarice; but as the _Anticatones_ were seasoned with
+lavish commendations of Cicero, whose panegyric on Cato they were intended
+to confute, the orator felt much flattered with the dictatorial incense,
+and greatly admired the performances in which it was offered,—“Collegit
+vitia Catonis, sed cum maximis laudibus meis(205).”
+
+These two rival works were much celebrated at Rome; and both of them had
+their several admirers, as different parties and interests disposed men to
+favour the subject, or the author of each. It seems also certain, that
+they were the principal cause of establishing and promoting that
+veneration which posterity has since paid to the memory of Cato; for his
+name being thrown into controversy in that critical period of the fate of
+Rome, by the patron of liberty on one side, and its oppressor on the
+other, it became a kind of political test to all succeeding ages, and a
+perpetual argument of dispute between the friends of freedom, and the
+flatterers of power(206). The controversy was taken up by Brutus, the
+nephew, and Fabius Gallus, an admirer of Cato: it was renewed by Augustus,
+who naturally espoused the royal side of the question, and by Thraseas
+Pætus, who ventured on this dangerous topic during the darkest days of
+imperial despotism.
+
+Cæsar’s situation as Pontifex Maximus probably led him to write the
+_Auguralia_ and _Libri Auspiciorum_, which, as their names import, were
+books explaining the different auguries and presages derived from the
+flight of birds. To the same circumstance we may attribute his work on the
+motions of the stars, _De Motu Siderum_, which explains what he had
+learned in Egypt on that subject from Sosigenes, a peripatetic philosopher
+of Alexandria, and in which, if we may credit the elder Pliny, he
+prognosticated his own death on the ides of March(207).
+
+The composition of the works hitherto mentioned naturally enough suggested
+itself to a high-priest, warrior, and politician, who was also fond of
+literature, and had the same command of his pen as of his sword. But it
+appears singular, that one so much occupied with war, and with political
+schemes for the ruin of his country, should have seriously employed
+himself in writing formal and elaborate treatises on grammar. There is no
+doubt, however, that he composed a work, in two books, on the analogies of
+the Latin tongue, which was addressed to Cicero, and was entitled, like
+the preceding work of Varro on the same subject, _De Analogia_. It was
+written, as we are informed by Suetonius, while crossing the Alps, on his
+return to the army from Hither Gaul, where he had gone to attend the
+assemblies of that province(208). In this book, the great principle
+established by him was, that the proper choice of words formed the
+foundation of eloquence(209); and he cautioned authors and public speakers
+to avoid as a rock every unusual word or unwonted expression(210). His
+declensions, however, of some nouns, appear, at least to us, not a little
+strange—as _turbo_, _turbonis_, instead of _turbinis_(211); and likewise
+his inflections of verbs,—as, _mordeo_, _memordi_; _pungo,_, _pepugi_;
+_spondeo_, _spepondi_(212). He also treated of derivatives; as we are
+informed, that he derived ens from the verb _sum_, _es_, _est_; and of
+rules of grammar,—as that the dative and ablative singular of neuters in
+_e_ are the same, as also of neuters in _ar_, except _far_ and _jubar_. It
+appears that he even descended to the most minute consideration of
+orthography and the formation of letters; Thus, he was of opinion, that
+the letter V should be formed like an inverted F,—thus Ⅎ,—because it has
+the force of the Æolic digamma. Cassiodorus farther mentions, that, in the
+question with regard to the use of the _u_ or _i_ in such words as
+_maxumus_ or _maximus_, Cæsar gave the preference to _i_; and, from such
+high authority, this spelling was adopted in general practice.
+
+It has been said, that Cæsar also made a collection of apophthegms and
+anecdotes, in the style of our modern _Ana_; but Augustus prevented these
+from being made public. That emperor likewise, in a letter to Pompeius
+Macrus, to whom he had given the charge of arranging his library,
+prohibited the publication of several poetical effusions of Cæsar’s youth.
+These are said to have consisted of a tragedy on the subject of Œdipus,
+and a poem in praise of Hercules(213). Another poem, entitled _Iter_ was
+written by him in maturer age. It is said, by Suetonius, to have been
+composed when he reached Farther Spain, on the twenty-fourth day after his
+departure from Rome(214); and it may therefore be conjectured to have been
+a poetical relation of the incidents which occurred during that journey,
+embellished, perhaps, with descriptions of the most striking scenery
+through which he passed. Two epigrams, which are still extant, have also
+been frequently attributed to him; one on the dramatic character of
+Terence, already quoted(215), and another on a Thracian boy, who, while
+playing on the ice, fell into the river Hebrus,—
+
+  “Thrax puer, astricto glacie dum luderet Hebro,” &c.
+
+But this last is, with more probability, supposed by many to have been the
+production of Cæsar Germanicus.
+
+There were also several useful and important works accomplished under the
+eye and direction of Cæsar, such as the graphic survey of the whole Roman
+empire. Extensive as their conquests had been, the Romans hitherto had
+done almost nothing for geography, considered as a science. Their
+knowledge was confined to the countries they had subdued, and them they
+regarded only with a view to the levies they could furnish, and the
+taxations they could endure. Cæsar was the first who formed more exalted
+plans. Æthicus, a writer of the fourth century, informs us, in the preface
+to his _Cosmographia_, that this great man obtained a _senatusconsultum_,
+by which a geometrical survey and measurement of the whole Roman empire
+was enjoined to three geometers. Xenodoxus was charged with the eastern,
+Polycletus with the southern, and Theodotus with the northern provinces.
+Their scientific labour was immediately commenced, but was not completed
+till more than thirty years after the death of him with whom the
+undertaking had originated. The information which Cæsar had received from
+the astronomer Sosigenes in Egypt, enabled him to alter and amend the
+Roman calendar. It would be foreign from my purpose to enter into an
+examination of this system of the Julian year, but the computation he
+adopted has been explained, as is well known, by Scaliger and
+Gassendi(216); and it has been since maintained, with little farther
+alteration than that introduced by Pope Gregory XIII. When we consider the
+imperfection of all mathematical instruments in the time of Cæsar, and the
+total want of telescopes, we cannot but view with admiration, not unmixed
+with astonishment, that comprehensive genius, which, in the infancy of
+science, could surmount such difficulties, and compute a system, that
+experienced but a trifling derangement in the course of sixteen centuries.
+
+Although Cæsar wrote with his own hand only seven books of the Gallic
+campaigns, and the history of the civil wars till the death of his great
+rival, it seems highly probable, that he revised the last or eighth book
+of the Gallic war, and communicated information for the history of the
+Alexandrian and African expeditions, which are now usually published along
+with his own Commentaries, and may be considered as their supplement, or
+continuation. The author of these works, which nearly complete the
+interesting story of the campaigns of Cæsar, was Aulus Hirtius, one of his
+most zealous followers, and most confidential friends. He had been
+nominated Consul for the year following the death of his master; and,
+after that event, having espoused the cause of freedom, he was slain in
+the attack made by the forces of the republic on Antony’s camp, near
+Modena.
+
+The eighth book of the Gallic war contains the account of the renewal of
+the contest by the states of Gaul, after the surrender of Alesia, and of
+the different battles which ensued, at most of which Hirtius was
+personally present, till the final pacification, when Cæsar, learning the
+designs which were forming against him at Rome, set out for Italy.
+
+Cæsar, in the conclusion of the third book of the Civil War, mentions the
+commencement of the Alexandrian war. Hirtius was not personally present at
+the succeeding events of this Egyptian contest, in which Cæsar was
+involved with the generals of Ptolemy, nor during his rapid campaigns in
+Pontus against Pharnaces, and against the remains of the Pompeian party in
+Africa, where they had assembled under Scipio, and being supported by
+Juba, still presented a formidable appearance. He collected, however, the
+leading events from the conversation of Cæsar(217), and the officers who
+were engaged in these campaigns. He has obviously imitated the style of
+his master; and the resemblance which he has happily attained, has given
+an appearance of unity and consistence to the whole series of these
+well-written and authentic memoirs. It appears that Hirtius carried down
+the history even to the death of Cæsar, for in his preface addressed to
+Balbus, he says, that he had brought down what was left imperfect from the
+transactions at Alexandria, to the end, not of the civil dissensions, to a
+termination of which there was no prospect, but of the life of Cæsar(218).
+
+This latter part, however, of the Commentaries of Hirtius, has been lost,
+as it seems now to be generally acknowledged that he was not the author of
+the book _De Bello Hispanico_, which relates Cæsar’s second campaign in
+Spain, undertaken against young Cneius Pompey, who, having assembled, in
+the ulterior province of that country, those of his father’s party who had
+survived the disasters in Thessaly and Africa, and being joined by some of
+the native states, presented a formidable resistance to the power of
+Cæsar, till his hopes were terminated by the decisive battle of Munda.
+Dodwell, indeed, in a Dissertation on this subject, maintains, that it was
+originally written by Hirtius, but was interpolated by Julius Celsus, a
+Constantinopolitan writer of the 6th or 7th century. Vossius, however,
+whose opinion is that more commonly received, attributes it to Caius
+Oppius(219), who wrote the Lives of Illustrious Captains, and also a book
+to prove that the Ægyptian Cæsario was not the son of Cæsar. Oppius was
+Cæsar’s confidential friend, and companion in many of his enterprizes; and
+it was to him, as we are informed by Suetonius, that Cæsar gave up the
+only apartment at an inn, while they were travelling in Gaul, and lay
+himself on the ground, and in the open air(220).
+
+A fragment has been added at the end of this book, on the Spanish war, by
+Jungerman, from a MS. of Petavius. Vossius thinks that this fragment was
+taken from the Commentaries, called those of Julius Celsus, on the Life of
+Cæsar, published in 1473. These Commentaries, however, were the work of a
+Christian writer; but Julius Celsus, a Constantinopolitan of the 6th
+century, already mentioned, having revised the Commentaries of Cæsar, the
+work on his life came, (from the confusion of names, or perhaps from a
+fiction devised, to give the stamp of authority,) to be attributed to
+Julius Celsus, who was contemporary with Cæsar, and was reported to have
+written a history of his campaigns; just in the same way as a fabulous
+life of Alexander, produced in the middle ages, passes to this day under
+the name of Callisthenes, the historiographer of the Macedonian monarch.
+
+There is no other historian of the period on which we are now engaged, of
+whose works even any fragments have descended to us. Atticus, however,
+wrote Memoirs of Rome from the earliest periods, and also memoirs of its
+principal families, as the Junian, Cornelian, and Fabian,—tracing their
+origin, enumerating their honours, and recording their exploits. At the
+same time Lucceius composed Histories of the Social War, and of the Civil
+Wars of Sylla, which were so highly esteemed by Cicero, that he urges him
+in one of his letters to undertake a history of his consulship, in which
+he discovered and suppressed the conspiracy of Catiline(221). From a
+subsequent letter to Atticus we learn that Lucceius had promised to
+accomplish the task suggested to him(222). It is probable, however, that
+it never was completed,—his labour having been interrupted by the civil
+wars, in which he followed the fortunes of Pompey, and was indeed one of
+his chief advisers in adopting the fatal resolution of quitting Italy.
+
+The Annals of Procilius, which appeared at this period, may be conjectured
+to have comprehended the whole series of Roman history, from the building
+of the city to his own time; since Varro quotes him for the account of
+Curtius throwing himself into the gulf(223) and Pliny refers to him for
+some remarks with regard to the elephants which appeared at Pompey’s
+African triumph(224).
+
+Brutus is also said to have written epitomes of the meagre and barren
+histories of Fannius and Antipater. That he should have thought of
+abridging narratives so proverbially dry and jejune, seems altogether
+inexplicable.
+
+The works of an historian called Cæcina have also perished, and if we may
+trust to his own account of them, their loss is not greatly to be
+deplored. In one of his letters to Cicero he says, “From much have I been
+compelled to refrain, many things I have been forced to pass over lightly,
+many to curtail, and very many absolutely to omit. Thus circumscribed,
+restricted, and broken as it is, what pleasure or what useful information
+can be expected from the recital(225)?”
+
+We have thus traced the progress of historical composition among the
+Romans, from its commencement to the time of Augustus. There is no history
+so distinguished and adorned as the Roman, by illustrious characters; and
+the circumstances which it records produced the greatest as well as most
+permanent empire that ever existed on earth. The interest of the early
+events, and the value of the conclusions to be drawn from them, are much
+diminished by their uncertainty. Subsequently, however, to the second
+Punic war, the Roman historians were, for the most part, themselves
+engaged in the affairs of which they treat, and had therefore, at least,
+the most perfect _means_ of communicating accurate information. But this
+advantage, which, in one point of view, is so prodigious, was attended
+with concomitant evils. Lucian, in his treatise, How History ought to be
+Written, says, that the author of this species of composition should be
+abstracted from all connection with the persons and things which are its
+subjects; that he should be of no country and no party; that he should be
+free from all passion, and unconcerned who is pleased or offended with
+what he writes. Now, the Roman historians of the era on which we are
+engaged were the slaves of party or the heads of factions; and even when
+superior to all petty interests or prejudices, they still show plainly
+that they are Romans. None of them stood impartially aloof from their
+subject, or supplied the want of historians of Carthage and of Gaul, by
+whom their narratives might be corrected, and their colouring softened.
+
+
+
+Of all the arts next to war, Eloquence was of most importance in Rome;
+since, if the former led to the conquest of foreign states, the latter
+opened to each individual a path to empire and dominion over the minds of
+his fellow citizens(226). Without this art, wisdom itself, in the
+estimation of Cicero, could be of little avail for the advantage or glory
+of the commonwealth(227).
+
+During the existence of the monarchy, and in the early age of the
+republic, law proceedings were not numerous. Many civil suits were
+prevented by the absolute dominion which a Roman father exercised over his
+family; and the rigour of the decemviral laws, in which all the
+proceedings were extreme, frequently concussed parties into an
+accommodation; while, at the same time, the purity of ancient manners had
+not yet given rise to those criminal questions of bribery and peculation
+at home, or of oppression and extortion in the provinces, which disgraced
+the closing periods of the commonwealth, and furnished themes for the
+glowing invective of Cicero and Hortensius. Hence there was little room
+for the exercise of legal oratory; and whatever eloquence may have shone
+forth in the early ages of Rome, was probably of a political description,
+and exerted on affairs of state.
+
+From the earliest times of the republic, history records the wonderful
+effects which Junius Brutus, Publicola, and Appius Claudius, produced by
+their harangues, in allaying seditions, and thwarting pernicious counsels.
+Dionysius of Halicarnassus gives us a formal speech, which Romulus, by
+direction of his grandfather, made to the people after the building of the
+city, on the subject of the government to be established(228). There are
+also long orations of Servius Tullius; and great part of the Antiquities
+of Dionysius is occupied with senatorial debates during the early ages of
+the republic. But though the orations of these fathers of Roman eloquence
+were doubtless delivered with order, gravity, and judgment, and may have
+possessed a masculine vigour, well calculated to animate the courage of
+the soldier, and protect the interests of the state, we must not form our
+opinion of them from the long speeches in Dionysius and Livy, or suppose
+that they were adorned with any of that rhetoric art with which they have
+been invested by these historians. A nation of outlaws, destined from
+their cradle to the profession of arms,—taught only to hurl the spear or
+javelin, and inure their bodies to other martial exercises,—with souls
+breathing only conquest,—and regarded as the enemies of every state till
+they had become its masters, could have possessed but few topics of
+illustration or embellishment, and were not likely to cultivate any
+species of rhetorical refinement. To convince by solid arguments when
+their cause was good, and to fill their fellow-citizens with passions
+corresponding to those with which they were themselves animated, would be
+the great objects of an eloquence supplied by nature and unimproved by
+study. Quintilian accordingly informs us, that though there appeared in
+the ancient orations some traces of original genius, and much force of
+argument, they bore, in their rugged and unpolished periods, the signs of
+the times in which they were delivered.
+
+With exception of the speech of Appius Claudius to oppose a peace with
+Pyrrhus, there are no harangues mentioned by the Latin critics or
+historians as possessing any charms of oratory, previously to the time of
+Cornelius Cethegus, who flourished during the second Punic war, and was
+Consul about the year 550. Cethegus was particularly distinguished for his
+admirable sweetness of elocution and powers of persuasion, whence he is
+thus characterized by Ennius, a contemporary poet, in the 9th book of his
+_Annals_:
+
+  “Additur orator Cornelius suaviloquenti
+  Ore Cethegus Marcus, Tuditano collega;
+  Flos delibatus populi, suadæque medulla.”
+
+The orations of Cato the Censor have been already mentioned as remarkable
+for their rude but masculine eloquence. When Cato was in the decline of
+life, a more rich and copious mode of speaking at length began to prevail.
+Ser. Galba, by the warmth and animation of his delivery, eclipsed Cato and
+all his contemporaries. He was the first among the Romans who displayed
+the distinguishing talents of an orator, by embellishing his subject,—by
+digressing, amplifying, entreating, and employing what are called topics,
+or common-places of discourse. On one occasion, while defending himself
+against a grave accusation, he melted his judges to compassion, by
+producing an orphan relative, whose father had been a favourite of the
+people. When his orations, however, were afterwards reduced to writing,
+their fire appeared extinguished, and they preserved none of that lustre
+with which his discourses are said to have shone when given forth by the
+living orator. Cicero accounts for this from his want of sufficient study
+and art in composition. While his mind was occupied and warmed by the
+subject, his language was bold and rapid; but when he took up the pen, his
+emotion ceased, and the periods fell languid from its point; “which,”
+continues he, “never happened to those who, having cultivated a more
+studied and polished style of oratory, wrote as they spoke. Hence the mind
+of Lælius yet breathes in his writings, though the force of Galba has
+failed.” It appears, however, from an anecdote recorded by Cicero, that
+Galba was esteemed the first orator of his age by the judges, the people,
+and Lælius himself.—Lælius, being intrusted with the defence of certain
+persons suspected of having committed a murder in the Silian forest, spoke
+for two days, correctly, elegantly, and with the approbation of all, after
+which the Consuls deferred judgment. He then recommended the accused to
+carry their cause to Galba, as it would be defended by him with more heat
+and vehemence. Galba, in consequence, delivered a most forcible and
+pathetic harangue, and after it was finished, his clients were absolved as
+if by acclamation(229). Hence Cicero surmises, that though Lælius might be
+the more learned and acute disputant, Galba possessed more power over the
+passions; he also conjectures, that the former had more elegance, but the
+latter more force; and he concludes, that the orator who can move or
+agitate his judges, farther advances his cause than he who can instruct
+them.
+
+Lælius is also compared by Cicero with his friend, the younger Scipio
+Africanus, in whose presence, this question concerning the Silian murder
+was debated. They were almost equally distinguished for their eloquence;
+and they resembled each other in this respect, that they both invariably
+delivered themselves in a smooth manner, and never, like Galba, exerted
+themselves with loudness of speech or violence of gesture(230); but their
+style of oratory was different,—Lælius affecting a much more ancient
+phraseology than that adopted by his friend. Cicero himself seems inclined
+most to admire the rhetoric of Scipio; but he says, that, being so
+renowned a captain, and mankind being unwilling to allow supremacy to one
+individual, in what are considered as the two greatest of arts, his
+contemporaries for the most part awarded to Lælius the palm of eloquence.
+
+The intercourse which was by this time opening up with Greece, and the
+encouragement now afforded to Greek teachers, who always possessed the
+undisputed privilege of dictating the precepts of the arts, produced the
+same improvement m oratory that it had effected in every branch of
+literature. Marcus Emilius Lepidus was a little younger than Galba or
+Scipio, and was Consul in 617. From his orations, which were extant in the
+time of Cicero, it appeared that he was the first who, in imitation of the
+Greeks, gave harmony and sweetness to his periods, or the graces of a
+style regularly polished and improved by art.
+
+Cicero mentions a number of other orators of the same age with Lepidus,
+and minutely paints their peculiar styles of rhetoric. We find among them
+the names of almost all the eminent men of the period, as Emilius Paulus,
+Scipio Nasica, and Mucius Scævola. The importance of eloquence for the
+purposes of political aggrandizement, is sufficiently evinced, from this
+work of Cicero, _De Claris Oratoribus_, since there is scarcely an orator
+mentioned, even of inferior note, who did not at this time rise to the
+highest offices in the state.
+
+The political situation of Rome, and the internal inquietude which now
+succeeded its foreign wars, were the great promoters of eloquence. We hear
+of no orators in Sparta or Crete, where the severest discipline was
+exercised, and where the people were governed by the strictest laws. But
+Rhodes and Athens, places of popular rule, where all things were open to
+all men, swarmed with orators. In like manner, Rome, when most torn with
+civil dissensions, produced the brightest examples of eloquence. Cicero
+declares, that wisdom without eloquence was of little service to the
+state(231); and from the political circumstances of the times, that sort
+of oratory was most esteemed which had most sway over a restless and
+ungovernable multitude. The situation of public affairs occasioned those
+continual debates concerning the Agrarian Laws, and the consequent
+popularity acquired by the most factious demagogues. Hence, too, those
+frequent impeachments of the great—those ambitious designs of the
+patricians—those hereditary enmities in particular families—in fine, those
+incessant struggles between the Senate and plebeians, which, though all
+prejudicial to the commonwealth, contributed to swell and ramify that rich
+vein of eloquence, which now flowed so profusely through the agitated
+frame of the state. During the whole period previous to the actual
+breaking out of the civil wars, when the Romans turned the sword against
+each other, and the mastery of the world depended on its edge, oratory
+continued to open the most direct path to dignities. The farther a Roman
+citizen advanced in this career, so much nearer was he to preferment, so
+much the greater his reputation with the people; and when elevated to the
+dignified offices of the state, so much the higher his ascendancy over his
+colleagues.
+
+The Gracchi were the genuine offspring, and their eloquence the natural
+fruits of these turbulent times. Till their age, oratory had been a sort
+of _Arcanum imperii_,—an instrument of government in the power of the
+Senate, who used every precaution to retain its exclusive exercise. It was
+the great bulwark that withstood the tide of popular passion, and weakened
+it so as not to beat too high or strongly on their own order and
+authority. The Gracchi not only broke down the embankment, but turned the
+flood against the walls of the Senate itself. The interests of the people
+had never yet been espoused by men endued with eloquence equal to theirs.
+Cicero, while blaming their political conduct, admits that both were
+consummate orators; and this he testifies from the recollection of persons
+still surviving in his day, and who remembered their mode of speaking.
+Indeed, the wonderful power which both brothers exercised over the people
+is a sufficient proof of their eloquence. Tiberius Gracchus was the first
+who made rhetoric a serious study and art. In his boyhood, he was
+carefully instructed in elocution by his mother Cornelia: he also
+constantly attended the ablest and most eloquent masters from Greece, and,
+as he grew up, he bestowed much time on the exercise of private
+declamation. It is not likely, that, gifted as he was by nature, and thus
+instructed, the powers of eloquence should long have remained dormant in
+his bosom. At the time when he first appeared on the turbulent stage of
+Roman life, the accumulation of landed property among a few individuals,
+and the consequent abuse of exorbitant wealth, had filled Italy with
+slaves instead of citizens—had destroyed the habits of rural industry
+among the people at large, and leaving only rich masters at the head of
+numerous and profligate servants, gradually rooted out those middle
+classes of society which constitute the strength, the worth, and the best
+hopes of every well-regulated commonwealth. It is said, that while passing
+through Etruria on his way to Numantia, Tiberius Gracchus found the
+country almost depopulated of freemen, and thence first formed the project
+of his Agrarian law, which was originally intended to correct the evils
+arising from the immense landed possessions of the rich, by limiting them
+to the number of acres specified in the ancient enactments(232), and
+dividing the conquered territories among the poorer citizens. Preparatory
+to its promulgation, he was wont to assemble the people round the rostrum,
+where he pleaded for the poor, in language of which we have a specimen in
+Plutarch: “The wild beasts of Italy have their dens to retire to—their
+places of refuge and repose; while the brave men who shed their blood in
+the cause of their country, have nothing left but fresh air and sunshine.
+Without houses, without settled habitations, they wander from place to
+place with their wives and children; and their commanders do but mock
+them, when, at the head of their armies, they exhort their soldiers to
+fight for their sepulchres and altars. For, among such numbers, there is
+not one Roman who has an altar which belonged to his ancestors, or a tomb
+in which their ashes repose. The private soldiers fight and die to
+increase the wealth and luxury of the great; and they are styled
+sovereigns of the world, while they have not a foot of ground they can
+call their own(233).” By such speeches as these, the people were
+exasperated to fury, and the Senate was obliged to have recourse to
+Octavius, who, as one of the tribunes, was the colleague of Gracchus, to
+counteract the effects of his animated eloquence. Irritated by this
+opposition, Gracchus abandoned the first plan of his law, which was to
+give indemnification from the public treasury to those who should be
+deprived of their estates, and proposed a new bill, by which they were
+enjoined forthwith to quit those lands which they held contrary to
+previous enactments. On this subject there were daily disputes between him
+and Octavius on the rostrum. Finding that his plans could not otherwise be
+accomplished he resolved on the expedient of deposing his colleague; and
+thenceforth, to the period of his death, his speeches (one of which is
+preserved by Plutarch) were chiefly delivered in persuasion or
+justification of that violent measure.
+
+Caius Gracchus was endued with higher talents than Tiberius, but the
+resentment he felt on account of his brother’s death, and eager desire for
+vengeance, led him into measures which have darkened his character with
+the shades of the demagogue. At the time of his brother’s death he had
+only reached the age of twenty. In early youth, he distinguished himself
+by the defence of one of his friends named Vettius, and charmed the people
+by the eloquence which he exerted. He appears soon afterwards to have been
+impelled, as it were, by a sort of destiny, to the same political course
+which had proved fatal to his brother, and which terminated in his own
+destruction. His speeches were all addressed to the people, and were
+delivered in proposing laws, calculated to increase their authority, and
+lessen that of the Senate,—as those for colonizing the public lands, and
+dividing them among the poor; for regulating the markets, so as to
+diminish the price of bread, and for vesting the judicial power in the
+knights. A fragment of his speech, _De Legibus Promulgatis_, is said to
+have been recently discovered, with other classical remains, in the
+Ambrosian Library. Aulus Gellius also quotes from this harangue, a
+passage, in which the orator complained that some respectable citizens of
+a municipal town in Italy had been scourged with rods by a Roman
+magistrate. Gellius praises the conciseness, neatness, and graceful ease
+of the narrative, resembling dramatic dialogue, in which this incident was
+related. Similar, but only similar qualities, appear in his accusation of
+the Roman legate, who, while travelling to Asia in a litter, caused a
+peasant to be scourged to death, for having asked his slaves if it was a
+corpse they were carrying. “The relation of these events,” says Gellius,
+“does not rise above the level of ordinary conversation. It is not a
+person complaining or imploring, but merely relating what had occurred;”
+and he contrasts this tameness with the energy and ardour with which
+Cicero has painted the commission of a like enormity by Verres(234).
+
+Though similar in many points of character and also in their political
+conduct, there was a marked difference in the style of eloquence, and
+forensic demeanour, of the two brothers. Tiberius, in his looks and
+gestures, was mild and composed—Caius, earnest and vehement; so that when
+they spoke in public, Tiberius had the utmost moderation in his action,
+and moved not from his place: whereas Caius was the first of the Romans,
+who, in addressing the people, walked to and fro in the rostrum, threw his
+gown off his shoulder, smote his thigh, and exposed his arm bare(235). The
+language of Tiberius was laboured and accurate, that of Caius bold and
+figurative. The oratory of the former was of a gentle kind, and pity was
+the emotion it chiefly raised—that of the latter was strongly impassioned,
+and calculated to excite terror. In speaking, indeed, Caius was often so
+hurried away by the violence of his passion, that he exalted his voice
+above the regular pitch, indulged in abusive expressions, and disordered
+the whole tenor of his oration. In order to guard against such excesses,
+he stationed a slave behind him with an ivory flute, which was modulated
+so as to lead him to lower or heighten the tone of his voice, according as
+the subject required a higher or a softer key. “The flute,” says Cicero,
+“you may as well leave at home, but the meaning of the practice you must
+remember at the bar(236).”
+
+In the time of the Gracchi, oratory became an object of assiduous and
+systematic study, and of careful education. A youth, intended for the
+profession of eloquence, was usually introduced to one of the most
+distinguished orators of the city, whom he attended when he had occasion
+to speak in any public or private cause, or in the assemblies of the
+people, by which means he heard not only him, but every other famous
+speaker. He thus became practically acquainted with business and the
+courts of justice, and learned the arts of oratoric conflict, as it were,
+in the field of battle. “It animated,” says the author of the dialogue _De
+Causis Corruptæ Eloquentiæ_,—“it animated the courage, and quickened the
+judgment of youth, thus to receive their instructions in the eye of the
+world, and in the midst of affairs, where no one could advance an absurd
+or weak argument, without being exposed by his adversary, and despised by
+the audience. Hence, they had also an opportunity of acquainting
+themselves with the various sentiments of the people, and observing what
+pleased or disgusted them in the several orators of the Forum. By these
+means they were furnished with an instructor of the best and most
+improving kind, exhibiting not the feigned resemblance of eloquence, but
+her real and lively manifestation—not a pretended but genuine adversary,
+armed in earnest for the combat—an audience ever full and ever new,
+composed of foes as well as of friends, and amongst whom not a single
+expression could fall but was either censured or applauded.”
+
+The minute attention paid by the younger orators to all the proceedings of
+the courts of justice, is evinced by the fragment of a Diary, which was
+kept by one of them in the time of Cicero, and in which we have a record,
+during two days, of the various harangues that were delivered, and the
+judgments that were pronounced(237).
+
+Nor were the advantages to be derived from fictitious oratorical contests
+long denied to the Roman youth. The practice of declaiming on feigned
+subjects, was introduced at Rome about the middle of its seventh century.
+The Greek rhetoricians, indeed, had been expelled, as well as the
+philosophers, towards the close of the preceding century; but, in the year
+661, Plotius Gallus, a Latin rhetorician, opened a declaiming school at
+Rome. At this period, however, the declamations generally turned on
+questions of real business, and it was not till the time of Augustus, that
+the rhetoricians so far prevailed, as to introduce common-place arguments
+on fictitious subjects.
+
+The eloquence which had originally been cultivated for seditious purposes,
+and for political advancement, began now to be considered by the Roman
+youth as an elegant accomplishment. It was probably viewed in the same
+light that we regard horsemanship or dancing, and continued to be so in
+the age of Horace—
+
+  “Namque, et nobilis, et decens,
+    Et pro sollicitis non tacitus reis,
+  Et centum puer artium,
+    Latè signa feret militiæ suæ(238).”
+
+Under all these circumstances it is evident, that in the middle of the
+seventh century oratory would be neglected by none; and in an art so
+sedulously studied, and universally practised, many must have been
+proficients. It would be endless to enumerate all the public speakers
+mentioned by Cicero, whose catalogue is rather extensive and dry. We may
+therefore proceed to those two orators, whom he commemorates as having
+first raised the glory of Roman eloquence to an equality with that of
+Greece—Marcus Antonius, and Lucius Crassus.
+
+The former, sirnamed _Orator_, and grandfather of the celebrated triumvir,
+was the most employed patron of his time; and, of all his contemporaries,
+was chiefly courted by clients, as he was ever willing to undertake any
+cause which was proposed to him. He possessed a ready memory, and
+remarkable talent of introducing everything where it could be placed with
+most effect. He had a frankness of manner which precluded any suspicion of
+artifice, and gave to all his orations an appearance of being the
+unpremeditated effusions of an honest heart. But though there was no
+apparent preparation in his speeches, he always spoke so well, that the
+judges were never sufficiently prepared against the effects of his
+eloquence. His language was not perfectly pure, or of a constantly
+sustained elegance, but it was of a solid and judicious character, well
+adapted to his purpose—his gesture, too, was appropriate, and suited to
+the sentiments and language—his voice was strong and durable, though
+naturally hoarse—but even this defect he turned to advantage, by
+frequently and easily adopting a mournful and querulous tone, which, in
+criminal questions, excited compassion, and more readily gained the belief
+of the judges. He left, however, as we are informed by Cicero, hardly any
+orations behind him(239), having resolved never to publish any of his
+pleadings, lest he should be convicted of maintaining in one cause
+something which was inconsistent with what he had alleged in another(240).
+
+The first oration by which Antony distinguished himself, was in his own
+defence. He had obtained the quæstorship of a province of Asia, and had
+arrived at Brundusium to embank there, when his friends informed him that
+he had been summoned before the Prætor Cassius, the most rigid judge in
+Rome, whose tribunal was termed the rock of the accused. Though he might
+have pleaded a privilege, which forbade the admission of charges against
+those who were absent on the service of the republic, he chose to justify
+himself in due form. Accordingly, he returned to Rome, stood his trial,
+and was acquitted with honour(241).
+
+One of the most celebrated orations which Antony pronounced, was that in
+defence of Norbanus, who was accused of sedition, and a violent assault on
+the magistrate, Æmilius Cæpio. He began by attempting to show from
+history, that seditions may sometimes be justifiable from necessity; that
+without them the kings would not have been expelled, or the tribunes of
+the people created. The orator then proceeded to insinuate, that his
+client had not been seditious, but that all had happened through the just
+indignation of the people; and he concluded with artfully attempting to
+renew the popular odium against Cæpio, who had been an unsuccessful
+commander(242).
+
+What Cicero relates concerning Antony’s defence of Aquilius, is an example
+of his power in moving the passions, and is, at the same time, extremely
+characteristic of the manner of Roman pleading. Antony, who is one of the
+speakers in the dialogue _De Oratore_, is introduced relating it himself.
+Seeing his client, who had once been Consul and a leader of armies,
+reduced to a state of the utmost dejection and peril, he had no sooner
+begun to speak, with a view towards melting the compassion of others, than
+he was melted himself. Perceiving the emotion of the judges when he raised
+his client from the earth, on which he had thrown himself, he instantly
+took advantage of this favourable feeling. He tore open the garments of
+Aquilius, and showed the scars of those wounds which he had received in
+the service of his country. Even the stern Marius wept. Him the orator
+then apostrophized; imploring his protection, and invoking with many tears
+the gods, the citizens, and the allies of Rome. “But whatever I could have
+said,” remarks he in the dialogue, “had I delivered it without being
+myself moved, it would have excited the derision, instead of the sympathy,
+of those who heard me(243).”
+
+Antony, in the course of his life, had passed through all the highest
+offices of the state. The circumstances of his death, which happened in
+666, during the civil wars of Marius and Sylla, were characteristic of his
+predominant talent. During the last proscription by Marius, he sought
+refuge in the house of a poor person, whom he had laid under obligations
+to him in the days of his better fortune. But his retreat being
+discovered, from the circumstance of his host procuring for him some wine
+nicer than ordinary, the intelligence was carried to Marius, who received
+it with a savage shout of exultation, and, clapping his hands for joy, he
+would have risen from table, and instantly repaired to the place where his
+enemy was concealed; but, being detained by his friends, he immediately
+despatched a party of soldiers, under a tribune, to slay him. The soldiers
+having entered his chamber for this purpose, and Antony suspecting their
+errand, addressed them in terms of such moving and insinuating eloquence,
+that his assassins burst into tears, and had not sufficient resolution to
+execute their mission. The officer who commanded them then went in, and
+cut off his head(244), which he carried to Marius, who affixed it to that
+rostrum, whence, as Cicero remarks, he had ably defended the lives of so
+many of his fellow-citizens(245); little aware that he would soon himself
+experience, from another Antony, a fate similar to that which he deplores
+as having befallen the grandsire of the triumvir.
+
+Crassus, the forensic rival of Antony, had prepared himself in his youth,
+for public speaking, by digesting in his memory a chosen number of
+polished and dignified verses, or a certain portion of some oration which
+he had read over, and then delivering the same matter in the best words he
+could select(246). Afterwards, when he grew a little older, he translated
+into Latin some of the finest Greek orations, and, at the same time, used
+every mental and bodily exertion to improve his voice, his action, and
+memory. He commenced his oratorical career at the early age of nineteen,
+when he acquired much reputation by his accusation of C. Carbo; and he,
+not long afterwards, greatly heightened his fame, by his defence of the
+virgin Licinia. Another of the best speeches of Crassus, was that
+addressed to the people in favour of the law of Servilius Cæpio, restoring
+in part the judicial power to the Senate, of which they had been recently
+deprived, in order to vest it solely in the body of knights. But the most,
+splendid of all the appearances of Crassus, was one that proved the
+immediate cause of his death, which happened in 662, a short while before
+the commencement of the civil wars of Marius and Sylla; and a few days
+after the time in which he is supposed to have borne his part in the
+dialogue _De Oratore_. The Consul Philippus had declared, in one of the
+assemblies of the people, that some other advice must be resorted to,
+since, with such a Senate as then existed, he could no longer direct the
+affairs of the government. A full Senate being immediately summoned,
+Crassus arraigned, in terms of the most glowing eloquence, the conduct of
+this Consul, who, instead of acting as the political parent and guardian
+of the Senate, sought to deprive its members of their ancient inheritance
+of respect and dignity. Being farther irritated by an attempt on the part
+of Philippus, to force him into compliance with his designs, he exerted,
+on this occasion, the utmost efforts of his genius and strength; but he
+returned home with a pleuritic fever, of which he died in the course of
+seven days. This oration of Crassus, followed as it was by his almost
+immediate death, made a deep impression on his countrymen; who, long
+afterwards, were wont to repair to the senate-house, for the purpose of
+viewing the spot where he had last stood, and fallen, as it may be said,
+in defence of the privileges of his order.
+
+Crassus left hardly any orations behind him, and he died while Cicero was
+still in his boyhood; yet that author, having collected the opinions of
+those who had heard him, speaks with a minute and apparently perfect
+intelligence of his mode of oratory. He was what may be called the most
+ornamental speaker that had hitherto appeared in the Forum. Though not
+without force, gravity, and dignity, these were happily blended with the
+most insinuating politeness, urbanity, ease, and gaiety. He was master of
+the most pure and accurate language, and of perfect elegance of
+expression, without any affectation, or unpleasant appearance of previous
+study. Great clearness of exposition distinguished all his harangues, and,
+while descanting on topics of law or equity, he possessed an inexhaustible
+fund of argument and illustration. In speaking, he showed an uncommon
+modesty, which went even the length of bashfulness. When a young man, he
+was so intimidated at the opening of a speech, that Q. Maximus, perceiving
+him overwhelmed and disabled by confusion, adjourned the court, which the
+orator always remembered with the highest sense of gratitude. This
+diffidence never entirely forsook him; and, after the practice of a long
+life at the bar, he was frequently so much agitated in the exordium of his
+discourse, that he was observed to grow pale, and to tremble in every part
+of his frame(247). Some persons considered Crassus as only equal to
+Antony; others preferred him as the more perfect and accomplished orator:
+Antony chiefly trusted to his intimate acquaintance with affairs and
+ordinary life: He was not, however, so destitute of knowledge as he
+seemed; but he thought the best way to recommend his eloquence to the
+people, was to appear as if he had never learned anything(248). Crassus,
+on the other hand, was well instructed in literature, and showed off his
+information to the best advantage. Antony possessed the greater power of
+promoting conjecture, and of allaying or exciting suspicion, by opposite
+and well-timed insinuations; but no one could have more copiousness or
+facility than Crassus, in defining, interpreting, and discussing, the
+principles of equity. The language of Crassus was indisputably preferable
+to that of Antony; but the action and gesture of Antony were as
+incontestably superior to those of Crassus.
+
+Sulpicius and Cotta, who were both born about 630, were younger orators
+than Antony or Crassus, but were for some time their contemporaries, and
+had risen to considerable reputation before the death of the latter and
+assassination of the former. Sulpicius lived for some years respected and
+admired; but, about the year 665, at the first breaking out of the
+dissensions between Sylla and Marius, being then a tribune of the people,
+he espoused the part of Marius. Plutarch gives a memorable account of his
+character and behaviour at this conjuncture, declaring that he was second
+to none in the most atrocious villainies. Alike unrestrained in avarice
+and cruelty, he committed the most criminal and enormous actions without
+hesitation or reluctance. He sold by public auction the freedom of Rome to
+foreigners—telling out the purchase-money on counters erected for that
+purpose in the Forum! He kept 3000 swordsmen in constant pay, and had
+always about him a company of young men of the equestrian order, ready on
+every occasion to execute his commands; and these he styled his
+anti-senatorian band(249). Cicero touches on his crimes with more
+tenderness; but says, that when he came to be tribune, he stript of all
+their dignities those with whom, as a private individual, he had lived in
+the strictest friendship(250). Whilst Marius kept his ground against his
+rival, Sulpicius transacted all public affairs, in his capacity of
+tribune, by violence and force of arms. He decreed to Marius the command
+in the Mithridatic war: He attacked the Consuls with his band while they
+were holding an assembly of the people in the Temple of Castor and Pollux,
+and deposed one of them(251). Marius, however, having been at length
+expelled by the ascendancy of Sylla, Sulpicius was betrayed by one of his
+slaves, and immediately seized and executed. “Thus,” says Cicero, “the
+chastisement of his rashness went hand in hand with the misfortunes of his
+country; and the sword cut off the thread of that life, which was then
+blooming to all the honours that eloquence can bestow(252).”
+
+Cicero had reached the age of nineteen, at the period of the death of
+Sulpicius. He had heard him daily speak in the Forum, and highly estimates
+his oratoric powers(253). He was the most lofty, and what Cicero calls the
+most tragic, orator of Rome. His attitudes, deportment, and figure, were
+of supreme dignity—his voice was powerful and sonorous—his elocution
+rapid; his action variable and animated.
+
+The constitutional weakness of Cotta prevented all such oratorical
+vehemence. In his manner he was soft and relaxed; but every thing he said
+was sober and in good taste, and he often led the judges to the same
+conclusion to which Sulpicius impelled them. “No two things,” says Cicero,
+“were ever more unlike than they are to each other. The one, in a polite,
+delicate manner, sets forth his subject in well-chosen expressions. He
+still keeps to his point; and, as he sees with the greatest penetration
+what he has to prove to the court, he directs to that the whole strength
+of his reasoning and eloquence, without regarding other arguments. But
+Sulpicius, endued with irresistible energy, with a full strong voice, with
+the greatest vehemence, and dignity of action, accompanied with so much
+weight and variety of expression, seemed, of all mankind, the best fitted
+by nature for eloquence.”
+
+It was supposed that Cotta wished to resemble Antony, as Sulpicius
+obviously imitated Crassus; but the latter wanted the agreeable pleasantry
+of Crassus, and the former the force of Antony. None of the orations of
+Sulpicius remained in the time of Cicero—those circulated under his name
+having been written by Canutius after his death. The oration of Cotta for
+himself, when accused on the Varian law, was composed, it is said, at his
+request by Lucius Ælius; and, if this be true, nothing can appear to us
+more extraordinary, than that so accomplished a speaker as Cotta should
+have wished any of the trivial harangues of Ælius to pass for his own.
+
+The renown, however, of all preceding orators, was now about to be
+eclipsed at Rome; and Hortensius burst forth in eloquence at once
+calculated to delight and astonish his fellow-citizens. This celebrated
+orator was born in the year 640, being thus ten years younger than Cotta
+and Sulpicius. His first appearance in the Forum was at the early age of
+nineteen—that is, in 659; and his excellence, says Cicero, was immediately
+acknowledged, like that of a statue by Phidias, which only requires to be
+seen in order to be admired(254). The case in which he first appeared was
+of considerable responsibility for one so young and inexperienced, being
+an accusation, at the instance of the Roman province of Africa, against
+its governors for rapacity. It was heard before Scævola and Crassus, as
+judges—the one the ablest lawyer, the other the most accomplished speaker,
+of his age; and the young orator had the good fortune to obtain their
+approbation, as well as that of all who were present at the trial(255).
+His next pleading of importance was in behalf of Nicomedes, King of
+Bithynia, in which he even surpassed his former speech for the
+Africans(256). After this we hear little of him for several years. The
+imminent perils of the Social War, which broke out in 663, interrupted, in
+a great measure, the business of the Forum. Hortensius served in this
+alarming contest for one year as a volunteer, and in the following season
+as a military tribune(257). When, on the re-establishment of peace in
+Italy in 666, he returned to Rome, and resumed the more peaceful
+avocations to which he had been destined from his youth, he found himself
+without a rival(258). Crassus, as we have seen, died in 662, before the
+troubles of Marius and Sylla. Antony, with other orators of inferior note,
+perished in 666, during the temporary and last ascendancy of Marius, in
+the absence of Sylla. Sulpicius was put to death in the same year, and
+Cotta driven into banishment, from which he was not recalled until the
+return of Sylla to Rome, and his election to the dictatorship in 670.
+Hortensius was thus left for some years without a competitor; and, after
+670, with none of eminence but Cotta, whom also he soon outshone. His
+splendid, warm, and animated manner, was preferred to the calm and easy
+elegance of his rival. Accordingly, when engaged in a cause on the same
+side, Cotta, though ten years senior, was employed to open the case, while
+the more important parts were left to the management of Hortensius(259).
+He continued the undisputed sovereign of the Forum, till Cicero returned
+from his quæstorship in Sicily, in 679, when the talents of that orator
+first displayed themselves in full perfection and maturity. Hortensius was
+thus, from 666 till 679, a space of thirteen years, at the head of the
+Roman bar; and being, in consequence, engaged during that long period, on
+one side or other, in every cause of importance, he soon amassed a
+prodigious fortune. He lived, too, with a magnificence corresponding to
+his wealth. An example of splendour and luxury had been set to him by the
+orator Crassus, who inhabited a sumptuous palace in Rome, the hall of
+which was adorned with four pillars of Hymettian marble, twelve feet high,
+which he brought to Rome in his ædileship, at a time when there were no
+pillars of foreign marble even in public buildings(260). The court of this
+mansion was ornamented by six lotus trees, which Pliny saw in full
+luxuriance in his youth, but which were afterwards burned in the
+conflagration in the time of Nero. He had also a number of vases, and two
+drinking-cups, engraved by the artist Mentor, but which were of such
+immense value that he was ashamed to use them(261). Hortensius had the
+same tastes as Crassus, but surpassed him and all his contemporaries in
+magnificence. His mansion stood on the Palatine Hill, which appears to
+have been the most fashionable situation in Rome, being at that time
+covered with the houses of Lutatius Catulus, Æmilius Scaurus, Clodius,
+Catiline, Cicero, and Cæsar(262). The residence of Hortensius was adjacent
+to that of Catiline; and though of no great extent, it was splendidly
+furnished. After the death of the orator, it was inhabited by Octavius
+Cæsar(263), and formed the centre of the chief imperial palace, which
+increased from the time of Augustus to that of Nero, till it covered a
+great part of the Palatine Mount, and branched over other hills. Besides
+his mansion in the capital, he possessed sumptuous villas at Tusculum,
+Bauli, and Laurentum, where he was accustomed to give the most elegant and
+expensive entertainments. He had frequently peacocks at his banquets,
+which he first served up at a grand augural feast, and which, says Varro,
+were more commended by the luxurious, than by men of probity and
+austerity(264). His olive plantations he is said to have regularly
+moistened and bedewed with wine; and, on one occasion, during the hearing
+of an important case, in which he was engaged along with Cicero, begged
+that he would change with him the previously arranged order of pleading,
+as he was obliged to go to the country to pour wine on a favourite
+_platanus_, which grew near his Tusculan villa(265). Notwithstanding this
+profusion, his heir found not less than 10,000 casks of wine in his cellar
+after his death(266). Besides his taste for wine, and fondness for
+plantations, he indulged a passion for pictures and fish-ponds. At his
+Tusculan villa, he built a hall for the reception of a painting of the
+expedition of the Argonauts, by the painter Cydias, which cost the
+enormous sum of a hundred and forty-four thousand sesterces(267). At his
+country-seat, near Bauli, on the sea shore, he vied with Lucullus and
+Philippus in the extent of his fish-ponds, which were constructed at
+immense cost, and so formed that the tide flowed into them(268). Under the
+promontory of Bauli, travellers are yet shown the _Piscina Mirabilis_, a
+subterraneous edifice, vaulted and divided by four rows of arcades, and
+which is supposed by some antiquarians to have been a fish-pond of
+Hortensius. Yet such was his luxury, and his reluctance to diminish his
+supply, that when he gave entertainments at Bauli, he generally sent to
+the neighbouring town of Puteoli to buy fish for supper(269). He had a
+vast number of fishermen in his service, and paid so much attention to the
+feeding of his fish, that he had always ready a large stock of small fish
+to be devoured by the great ones. It was with the utmost difficulty he
+could be prevailed on to part with any of them; and Varro declares, that a
+friend could more easily get his chariot mules out of his stable, than a
+mullet from his ponds. He was more anxious about the welfare of his fish
+than the health of his slaves, and less solicitous that a sick servant
+might not take what was unfit for him, than that his fish might not drink
+water which was unwholesome(270). It is even said, that he was so
+passionately fond of a particular lamprey, that he shed tears for her
+untimely death(271).
+
+The gallery at the villa, which was situated on the little promontory of
+Bauli, and looking towards Puteoli, commanded one of the most delightful
+views in Italy. The inland prospect towards Cumæ was extensive and
+magnificent. Puteoli was seen along the shore at the distance of 30
+_stadia_, in the direction of Pompeii; and Pompeii itself was invisible
+only from its distance. The sea view was unbounded; but it was enlivened
+by the numerous vessels sailing across the bay, and the ever changeful hue
+of its waters, now saffron, azure, or purple, according as the breeze
+blew, or as the sun ascended or declined(272).
+
+Hortensius possessed another villa in Italy, which rivalled in its sylvan
+pomp the marine luxuries of Bauli. This mansion lay between Ostia and
+Lavinium, (now Pratica,) near to the town of Laurentum, so well remembered
+from ancient fable and poetry, as having been the residence of King
+Latinus, at the time of the arrival of Æneas in Italy, and at present
+known by the name of Torre di Paterno. The town of Laurentum was on the
+shore, but the villa of Hortensius stood to the north-east at some
+distance from the coast,—the grounds subsequently occupied by the villa of
+the younger Pliny intervening between it and Laurentum, and also between
+it and the Tuscan sea. Around were the walks and gardens of patrician
+villas; on one side was seen the town of Laurentum, with its public baths;
+on the other, but at a greater distance, the harbour of Ostia. Near the
+house were groves, and fields covered with herds—beyond were hills clothed
+with woods. The horizon to the north-east was bounded by magnificent
+mountains, and beyond the low maritime grounds, which lay between the port
+of Ostia and Laurentum, there was a distant prospect of the Tuscan
+sea(273).
+
+Hortensius had here a wooded park of fifty acres, encompassed with a wall.
+This enclosure he called a nursery of wild beasts, all which came for
+their provender at a certain hour, on the blowing of a horn—an exhibition
+with which he was accustomed to amuse the guests who visited him at his
+Laurentian villa. Varro mentions an entertainment, where those invited
+supped on an eminence, called a _Triclinium_, in this sylvan park. During
+the repast, Hortensius summoned his Orpheus, who, having come with his
+musical instruments, and being ordered to display his talents, blew a
+trumpet, when such a multitude of deer, boars, and other quadrupeds,
+rushed to the spot from all quarters, that the sight appeared to the
+delighted spectators as beautiful as the courses with wild animals in the
+great Circus of the Ædiles(274)!
+
+The eloquence of Hortensius procured him not only all this wealth and
+luxury, but the highest official honours of the state. He was Ædile in
+679, Prætor in 682, and Consul two years afterwards. The wealth and
+dignities he had obtained, and the want of competition, made him gradually
+relax from that assiduity by which they had been acquired, till the
+increasing fame of Cicero, and particularly the glory of his consulship,
+stimulated him to renew his exertions. But his habit of labour had been in
+some degree lost, and he never again recovered his former reputation.
+Cicero partly accounts for this decline, from the peculiar nature and
+genius of his eloquence(275). It was of that showy species called Asiatic,
+which flourished in the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, and was infinitely
+more florid and ornamental than the oratory of Athens, or even Rhodes,
+being full of brilliant thoughts and of sparkling expressions. This
+glowing style of rhetoric, though deficient in solidity and weight, was
+not unsuitable in a young man; and being farther recommended by a
+beautiful cadence of periods, met with the utmost applause. But
+Hortensius, as he advanced in life, did not prune his exuberance, or adopt
+a chaster eloquence; and this luxury, and glitter of phraseology, which,
+even in his earliest years, had occasionally excited ridicule or disgust
+among the graver fathers of the senatorial order, being totally
+inconsistent with his advanced age and consular dignity, which required
+something more serious and composed, his reputation diminished with
+increase of years; and though the bloom of his eloquence might be in fact
+the same, it appeared to be somewhat withered(276). Besides, from his
+declining health and strength, which greatly failed in his latter years,
+he may not have been able to give full effect to that showy species of
+rhetoric in which he indulged. A constant toothache, and swelling in the
+jaws, greatly impaired his power of elocution and utterance, and became at
+length so severe as to accelerate his end—
+
+  “Ægrescunt teneræ fauces, quum frigoris atri
+  Vis subiit, vel quum ventis agitabilis aër
+  Vertitur, atque ipsas flatus gravis inficit auras,
+  Vel rabidus clamor fracto quum forte sonore
+  Planum radit iter. Sic est Hortensius olim
+  Absumptus: caussis etenim confectus agendis
+  Obticuit, quum vox, domino vivente, periret,
+  Et nondum exstincti moreretur lingua diserti(277).”
+
+A few months, however, before his death, which happened in 703, he pleaded
+for his nephew, Messala, who was accused of illegal canvassing, and who
+was acquitted, more in consequence of the astonishing exertions of his
+advocate, than the justice of his cause. So unfavourable, indeed, was his
+case esteemed, that however much the speech of Hortensius had been
+admired, he was received on entering the theatre of Curio on the following
+day, with loud clamour and hisses, which were the more remarked, as he had
+never met with similar treatment in the whole course of his forensic
+career(278). The speech, however, revived all the ancient admiration of
+the public for his oratorical talents, and convinced them, that had he
+always possessed the same perseverance as Cicero, he would not have ranked
+second to that orator. Another of his most celebrated harangues was that
+against the Manilian law, which vested Pompey with such extraordinary
+powers, and was so warmly supported by Cicero. That against the sumptuary
+law proposed by Crassus and Pompey, in the year 683, which tended to
+restrain the indulgence of his own taste, was well adapted to Hortensius’
+style of eloquence; and his speech was highly characteristic of his
+disposition and habits of life. He declaimed, at great length, on the
+glory of Rome, which required splendour in the mode of living followed by
+its citizens(279). He frequently glanced at the luxury of the Consuls
+themselves, and forced them at length, by his eloquence and sarcastic
+declamation, to relinquish their scheme of domestic retrenchment.
+
+The speeches of Hortensius, it has been already mentioned, lost part of
+their effect by the orator’s advance in years, but they suffered still
+more by being transferred to paper. As his chief excellence consisted in
+action and delivery, his writings were much inferior to what was expected
+from the high fame he had enjoyed; and, accordingly, after death, he
+retained little of that esteem, which he had so abundantly possessed
+during his life(280). Although, therefore, his orations had been
+preserved, they would have given us but an imperfect idea of the eloquence
+of Hortensius; but even this aid has been denied us, and we must,
+therefore, now chiefly trust for his oratorical character to the opinion
+of his great but unprejudiced rival. The friendship and honourable
+competition of Hortensius and Cicero, present an agreeable contrast to the
+animosities of Æschines and Demosthenes, the two great orators of Greece.
+It was by means of Hortensius that Cicero was chosen one of the college of
+Augurs—a service of which his gratified vanity ever appears to have
+retained an agreeable recollection. In a few of his letters, indeed,
+written during the despondency of his exile, he hints a suspicion that
+Hortensius had been instrumental in his banishment, with a view of
+engrossing to himself the whole glory of the bar(281); but this mistrust
+ended with his recall, which Hortensius, though originally he had advised
+him to yield to the storm, urged on with all the influence of which he was
+possessed. Hortensius also appears to have been free from every feeling of
+jealousy or envy, which in him was still more creditable, as his rival was
+younger than himself, and yet ultimately forced him from the supremacy.
+Such having been their sentiments of mutual esteem, Cicero has done his
+oratoric talents ample justice—representing him as endued with almost all
+the qualities necessary to form a distinguished speaker. His imagination
+was fertile—his voice was sweet and harmonious—his demeanour dignified—his
+language rich and elegant—his acquaintance with literature extensive. So
+prodigious was his memory, that, without the aid of writing, he
+recollected every word he had meditated, and every sentence of his
+adversary’s oration, even to the titles and documents brought forward to
+support the case against him—a faculty which greatly aided his peculiarly
+happy art of recapitulating the substance of what had been said by his
+antagonists or by himself(282). He also originally possessed an
+indefatigable application; and scarcely a day passed in which he did not
+speak in the Forum, or exercise himself in forensic studies or
+preparation. But, of all the various arts of oratory, he most remarkably
+excelled in a happy and perspicuous arrangement of his subject. Cicero
+only reproaches him, and that but slightly, with showing more study and
+art in his gestures than was suitable for an orator. It appears, however,
+from Macrobius, that he was much ridiculed by his contemporaries, on
+account of his affected gestures. In pleading, his hands were constantly
+in motion, whence he was often attacked by his adversaries in the Forum
+for resembling an actor; and, on one occasion, he received from his
+opponent the appellation of _Dionysia_, which was the name of a celebrated
+dancing girl(283). Æsop and Roscius frequently attended his pleadings, to
+catch his gestures, and imitate them on the stage(284). Such, indeed, was
+his exertion in action, that it was commonly said that it could not be
+determined whether people went to hear or to see him(285). Like
+Demosthenes, he chose and put on his dress with the most studied care and
+neatness. He is said, not only to have prepared his attitudes, but also to
+have adjusted the plaits of his gown before a mirror, when about to issue
+forth to the Forum; and to have taken no less care in arranging them, than
+in moulding the periods of his discourse. He so tucked up his gown, that
+the folds did not fall by chance, but were formed with great care, by
+means of a knot artfully tied, and concealed in the plies of his robe,
+which apparently flowed carelessly around him(286). Macrobius also records
+a story of his instituting an action of damages against a person who had
+jostled him, while walking in this elaborate dress, and had ruffled his
+toga, when he was about to appear in public with his drapery adjusted
+according to the happiest arrangement(287)—an anecdote, which, whether
+true or false, shows, by its currency, the opinion entertained of his
+finical attention to everything that concerned the elegance of his attire,
+or the gracefulness of his figure and attitudes. He also bathed himself in
+odoriferous waters, and daily perfumed himself with the most precious
+essences(288). This too minute attention to his person, and to
+gesticulation, appears to have been the sole blemish in his oratorical
+character; and the only stain on his moral conduct, was his practice of
+corrupting the judges of the causes in which he was employed—a practice
+which must be, in a great measure, imputed to the defects of the judicial
+system at Rome; for, whatever might be the excellence of the Roman laws,
+nothing could be worse than the procedure under which they were
+administered(289).
+
+Hortensius has received more justice from Cicero than another orator,
+Licinius Calvus, who, for a few years, was also considered as his rival in
+eloquence. Calvus has already been mentioned as an elegant poet; but
+Seneca calls his competition with Cicero in oratory, _iniquissimam litem_.
+His style of speaking was directly the reverse of that of Hortensius: he
+affected the Attic taste in eloquence, such as it appeared in what he
+conceived to be its purest form—the orations of Lysias. Hence that correct
+and slender delicacy at which he so studiously aimed, and which he
+conducted with great skill and elegance; but, from being too much afraid
+of the faults of redundance and unsuitable ornament, he refined and
+attenuated his discourse till it lost its raciness and spirit. He
+compensated, however, for his sterility of language, and diminutive
+figure, by his force of elocution, and vivacity of action. “I have met
+with persons,” says Quintilian, “who preferred Calvus to all our orators;
+and others who were of opinion, that the too great rigour which he
+exercised on himself, in point of precision, had debilitated his
+oratorical talents. Nevertheless, his speeches, though chaste, grave, and
+correct, are frequently also vehement. His taste of writing was Attic; and
+his untimely death was an injury to his reputation, if he designed to add
+to his compositions, and not to retrench them.” His most celebrated
+oration, which was against the unpopular Vatinius, was delivered at the
+age of twenty. The person whom he accused, overpowered and alarmed,
+interrupted him, by exclaiming to the judges, “Must I be condemned because
+he is eloquent?” The applause he obtained in this case may be judged of
+from what is mentioned by Catullus, of some one in the crowd clapping his
+hands in the middle of his speech, and exclaiming, “O what an eloquent
+little darling(290)!” Calvus survived only ten years after this period,
+having died at the early age of thirty. He left behind him twenty-one
+books of orations, which are said to have been much studied by the younger
+Pliny, and were the models he first imitated(291).
+
+Calvus, though a much younger man than Cicero, died many years before him,
+and previous to the composition of the dialogue _Brutus_. Most of the
+other contemporaries, whom Cicero records in that treatise on celebrated
+orators, were dead also. Among an infinite variety of others, he
+particularly mentions Marcus Crassus, the wealthy triumvir, who perished
+in the ill-fated expedition against the Parthians; and who, though
+possessed but of moderate learning and capacity, was accounted, in
+consequence of his industry and popular arts, among the chief forensic
+patrons. His language was pure, and his subject well arranged; but in his
+harangues there were none of the lights and flowers of eloquence,—all
+things were expressed in the same manner, and the same tone.
+
+Towards the conclusion of the dialogue, Cicero mentions so many of his
+predeceased contemporaries, that Atticus remarks, that he is drawing up
+the dregs of oratory. Calidius, indeed, seems the only other speaker who
+merits distinguished notice. He is characterized as different from all
+other orators,—such was the soft and polished language in which he arrayed
+his exquisitely delicate sentiments. Nothing could be more easy, pliable,
+and ductile, than the turn of his periods; his words flowed like a pure
+and limpid stream, without anything hard or muddy to impede or pollute
+their course; his action was genteel, his mode of address sober and calm,
+his arrangement the perfection of art. “The three great objects of an
+orator,” says Cicero, while discussing the merits of Calidius, “are to
+instruct, delight, and move. Two of these he admirably accomplished. He
+rendered the most abstruse subject clear by illustration, and enchained
+the minds of his hearers with delight. But the third praise of moving and
+exciting the soul must be denied him; he had no force, pathos, or
+animation(292).” Such, indeed, was his want of emotion, where it was most
+appropriate, and most to be expected, that, while pleading his own cause
+against Q. Gallius for an attempt to poison him, though he stated his case
+with elegance and perspicuity, yet it was so smoothly and listlessly
+detailed, that Cicero, who spoke for the person accused, argued, that the
+charge must be false and an invention of his own, as no one could talk so
+calmly, and with such indifference, of a recent attempt which threatened
+his own existence(293).
+
+These were the most renowned orators who preceded the age of Cicero, or
+were contemporaries with him; and before proceeding to consider the
+oratorical merits of him by whom they have been all eclipsed, at least in
+the eye of posterity, it may be proper, for a single moment, to remind the
+reader of the state of the Roman law,—of the judicial procedure, and of
+the ordinary practice of the Forum, at the time when he commenced and
+pursued his brilliant career of eloquence.
+
+The laws of the first six kings of Rome, called the _Leges Regiæ_, chiefly
+related to sacred subjects,—regulations of police,—divisions of the
+different orders in the state,—and privileges of the people. Tarquinius
+Superbus having laid a plan for the establishment of despotism at Rome,
+attempted to abolish every law of his predecessors which imposed control
+on the royal prerogative. About the time of his expulsion(294), the Senate
+and people, believing that the disregard of the laws was occasioned by
+their never having been reduced in writing, determined to have them
+assembled and recorded in one volume; and this task was intrusted by them
+to Sextus Papyrius, a patrician. Papyrius accordingly collected, with
+great assiduity, all the laws of the monarchs who had governed Rome
+previously to the time of Tarquin. This collection, which is sometimes
+called the _Leges Regiæ_, and sometimes the Papyrian Code, did not obtain
+that confirmation and permanence which might have been expected. Many of
+the _Leges Regiæ_ were the result of momentary emergencies, and
+inapplicable to future circumstances. Being the ordinances, too, of a
+detested race, and being in some respects but ill adapted to the genius
+and temper of a republican government, a great number of them soon fell
+into desuetude(295). The new laws promulgated immediately after the
+expulsion of the kings, related more to those constitutional modifications
+which were rendered necessary by so important a revolution, than to the
+civil rights of the citizen. In consequence of the dissensions of the
+patricians and plebeians, every _Senatusconsultum_ proceeding from the
+deliberations of the Senate was negatived by the _veto_ of the Tribunes,
+while the Senate, in return, disowned the authority of the _Plebiscita_,
+and denied the right of the Tribunes to propose laws. There was thus a
+sort of legal interregnum at Rome; at least, there were no fixed rules to
+which all classes were equally subjected: and the great body of the people
+were too often the victims of the pride of the patricians and tyranny of
+the consular government. In this situation, C. Terentius Arsa brought
+forward the law known by the name of _Terentilla_, of which the object was
+the election by the people of ten persons, who should compose and arrange
+a body of laws for the administration of public affairs, as well as
+decision of the civil rights of individuals according to established
+rules. The Senate, who maintained that the dispensation of justice was
+solely vested in the supreme magistrates, contrived, for five years, to
+postpone execution of this salutary measure; but it was at length agreed,
+that, as a preparatory step, and before the creation of the Decemvirs, who
+were to form this code, three deputies should be sent to Greece, and the
+Greek towns of Italy, to select such enactments as they might consider
+best adapted to the manners and customs of the Roman people.
+
+The delegates, who departed on this embassy towards the close of the year
+300, were occupied two years in their important mission. From what cities
+of Greece, or Magna Græcia, they chiefly borrowed their laws, has been a
+topic of much discussion, and seems to be still involved in much
+uncertainty(296); though Athens is most usually considered as having been
+the great fountain of their legislation.
+
+On the return of the deputies to Rome, the office of Consul was
+suppressed, and ten magistrates, called Decemvirs, among whom these
+deputies were included, were immediately created. To them was confided the
+care of digesting the prodigious mass of laws which had been brought from
+Greece. This task they accomplished with the aid of Hermodorus, an exile
+of Ephesus, who then happened to be at Rome, and acted as their
+interpreter. But although the importation from Greece formed the chief
+part of the twelve tables, it cannot be supposed that the ancient laws of
+Rome were entirely superseded. Some of the _Leges Regiæ_, which had no
+reference to monarchical government, as the laws of Romulus, concerning
+the _Patria potestas_, those concerning parricides, the removal of
+landmarks, and insolvent debtors, had, by tacit consent, passed into
+consuetudinary law; and all those which were still in observance were
+incorporated in the Decemviral Code; in the same manner as the
+institutions of the heroic ages of Greece formed a part of the laws of
+Solon and Lycurgus.
+
+Before a year had elapsed from the date of their creation, the Decemvirs
+had prepared ten books of laws; which, being engraved on wooden or ivory
+tables, were presented to the people, and received the sanction of the
+Senate, and ratification of the Comitia Centuriata. Two supplementary
+tables were soon afterwards added, in consequence of some omissions which
+were observed and pointed out to the Decemvirs. In all these tables the
+laws were briefly expressed. The first eight related to matters of private
+right, the ninth to those of public, and the tenth to those of religious
+concern. These ten tables established very equitable rules for all
+different ranks, without distinction; but in the two supplemental tables
+some invidious distinctions were introduced, and many exclusive privileges
+conferred on the patricians.
+
+On the whole, the Decemvirs appear to have been very well versed in the
+science of legislation. Those who, like Cicero(297) and Tacitus, possessed
+the Twelve Tables complete, and who were the most competent judges of how
+far they were adapted to the circumstances and manners of the people, have
+highly commended the wisdom of these laws. Modern detractors have chiefly
+objected to the sanguinary punishments they inflicted, the principles of
+the law of retaliation which they recognized, and the barbarous privileges
+permitted to creditors on the persons of their debtors. The severer
+enactments, however, of the Twelve Tables, were evidently never put in
+force, or so soon became obsolete, that the Roman laws were at length
+esteemed remarkable for the mildness of their punishments—the penalties of
+scourging, or death, being scarcely in any case inflicted on a Roman
+citizen.
+
+The tables on which the Decemviral Code had been inscribed, were destroyed
+by the Gauls at the sack of the city; but such pains were taken in
+recovering copies, or making them out from recollection, that the laws
+themselves were almost completely re-established.
+
+It might reasonably have been expected that a system of jurisprudence,
+carefully extracted from the whole legislative wisdom of Italy and Greece,
+should have restored in the commonwealth that good order and security
+which had been overthrown by the uncertainty of the laws, and the disputes
+of the patricians and plebeians. But the event did not justify the
+well-founded expectation. The ambition and lawless passions of the chief
+Decemvir had rendered it necessary for him and his colleagues to abdicate
+their authority before they had settled with sufficient precision how
+their enactments were to be put in practice or enforced. It thus became
+essential to introduce certain _formulæ_, called _Legis Actiones_, in
+order that the mode of procedure might not remain arbitrary and uncertain.
+These, consisting chiefly of certain symbolical gestures, adapted to a
+legal claim or defence, were prepared by Claudius Cœcus about the middle
+of the fifth century of Rome, but were intended to be kept private among
+the pontiffs and patrician Jurisconsults, that the people might not have
+the benefit of the law without their assistance. Cl. Flavius, however, a
+secretary of Claudius, having access to these formularies, transcribed and
+communicated them to the people about the middle of the fifth century of
+Rome. From this circumstance they were called the _Jus civile Flavianum_.
+This discovery was so disagreeable to the patricians, that they devised
+new legal forms, which they kept secret with still more care than the
+others. But in 553, Sextus Ælius Catus divulged them again, and in
+consequence, these last prescripts obtained the name of _Jus Ælium_, which
+may be regarded as the last part and completion of the Decemviral laws;
+and it continued to be employed as the form of process during the whole
+remaining period of the existence of the commonwealth.
+
+As long as the republic survived, the Twelve Tables formed the foundation
+of the Roman law, though they were interpreted and enlarged by such new
+enactments as the circumstances of the state demanded(298). Thus the _Lex
+Aquilia_ and _Alinia_ were mere modifications of different heads of the
+twelve tables. Most of the new laws were introduced in consequence of the
+increase of empire and luxury, and the conflicting interests of the
+various orders in the state. Laws, properly so called, were proposed by a
+superior magistrate, as the Consul, Dictator, or Prætor, with consent of
+the Senate; they were passed by the whole body of the people, patricians
+and plebeians, assembled in the Comitia Centuriata, and bore ever after
+the name of the proposer.
+
+The _Plebiscita_ were enacted by the plebeians in the Comitia Tributa,
+apart from the patricians, and independently of the sanction of the
+Senate, at the _rogation_ of their own Tribunes, instead of one of the
+superior magistrates. The patricians generally resisted these decrees, as
+they were chiefly directed against the authority of the Senate, and the
+privileges of the higher orders of the state. But, by the _Lex Horatia_,
+the same weight and authority were given to them as to laws properly so
+termed, and thenceforth they differed only in name, and the manner in
+which they were enacted.
+
+A _Senatusconsultum_ was an ordinance of the Senate on those points
+concerning which it possessed exclusive authority; but rather referred to
+matters of state, as the distribution of provinces, the application of
+public money, and the like, than to the ordinary administration of
+justice.
+
+The patricians, being deprived by the Twelve Tables of the privilege of
+arbitrarily pronouncing decisions, as best suited their interests; and
+being frustrated in their miserable attempts to maintain an undue
+advantage in matters of form, by secreting the rules of procedure held in
+courts of justice, they had now reserved to them only the power of
+interpreting to others the scope and spirit of the laws. Till the age, at
+least, of Augustus, the civil law was completely unconnected and
+dissipated; and no systematic, accessible, or authoritative treatise on
+the subject, appeared during the existence of the republic(299). The laws
+of the Twelve Tables were extremely concise and elliptical; and it seems
+highly probable that they were written in this style, not for the sake of
+perspicuity, but to leave all that required to be supplied or interpreted
+in the power of the Patricians(300). The changes, too, in the customs and
+language of the Romans, rendered the style of the Twelve Tables less
+familiar to each succeeding generation; and the ambiguous passages were
+but imperfectly explained by the study of legal antiquarians. It was the
+custom, likewise, for each successive Prætor to publish an edict,
+announcing the manner in which justice was to be distributed by him—the
+rules which he proposed to follow in the decision of doubtful cases; and
+the degree of relief which his equity would afford from the precise rigour
+of ancient statutes. This annual alteration in forms, and sometimes even
+in the principles of law, introduced a confusion, which persons engrossed
+with other occupations could not unravel. The obscurity of old laws, and
+fluctuating jurisdiction of the Prætors, gave rise to that class of men
+called Jurisconsults, whose business it was to explain legal difficulties,
+and reconcile statutory contradictions. It was the relation of patron and
+client, which was coeval almost with the city itself, and was invested
+with a sacred, inviolable character, that gave weight to the _dicta_ of
+those who, in some measure, came in place of the ancient patrons, and
+usually belonged to the patrician order.—“On the public days of market or
+assembly,” says Gibbon, “the masters of the art were seen walking in the
+Forum, ready to impart the needful advice to the meanest of their
+fellow-citizens, from whose votes, on a future occasion, they might
+solicit a grateful return. As their years and honours increased, they
+seated themselves at home on a chair or throne, to expect with patient
+gravity the visits of their clients, who, at the dawn of day, from the
+town and country, began to thunder at their door. The duties of social
+life, and incidents of judicial proceedings, were the ordinary subject of
+these consultations; and the verbal or written opinions of the
+jurisconsults were framed according to the rules of prudence and law. The
+youths of their own order and family were permitted to listen; their
+children enjoyed the benefit of more private lessons; and the Mucian race
+was long renowned for the hereditary knowledge of the civil law(301).”
+Though the judges and prætors were not absolutely obliged, till the time
+of the emperors, to follow the recorded opinions of the Jurisconsults,
+they possessed during the existence of the republic a preponderating
+weight and authority. The province of legislation was thus gradually
+invaded by these expounders of ancient statutes, till at length their
+recorded opinions, the _Responsa Prudentum_, became so numerous, and of
+such authority, that they formed the greatest part of the system of Roman
+jurisprudence, whence they were styled by Cicero, in his oration for
+Cæcina, _Jus Civile_.
+
+It is perfectly evident, however, that the civil law was neither much
+studied nor known by the _orators_ of the Senate, and Forum. Cicero, in
+his treatise _De Oratore_, informs us, that Ser. Galba, the first speaker
+of his day, was ignorant of law, inexperienced in civil rights, and
+uncertain as to the institutions of his ancestors. In his _Brutus_ he says
+nearly the same thing of Antony and Sulpicius, who were the two greatest
+orators of their age, and who, he declares, knew nothing of public,
+private, or civil law. Antony in particular, always expressed a contempt
+for the study of the civil law(302). Accordingly, in the dialogue _De
+Oratore_, he is made to say, “I never studied the civil law, nor have I
+been sensible of any loss from my ignorance of it in those causes which I
+was capable of managing in our courts(303).” In the same dialogue, Scævola
+says, “The present age is totally ignorant of the laws of the Twelve
+Tables, except you, Crassus, who, led by curiosity, rather than from its
+being any province annexed to eloquence, studied civil law under me.” In
+his oration for Muræna, Cicero talks lightly of the study of the civil
+law, and treats his opponent with scorn on account of his knowledge of its
+words of style and forms of procedure(304). With exception, then, of
+Crassus, and of Scævola, who was rather a jurisconsult than a speaker, the
+orators of the age of Cicero, as well as those who preceded it, were
+uninstructed in law, and considered it as no part of their duty to render
+themselves masters, either of the general principles of jurisprudence, or
+the municipal institutions of the state. Crassus, indeed, expresses his
+opinion, that it is impossible for an orator to do justice to his client
+without some knowledge of law, particularly in questions tried before the
+Centumviri, who had cognizance of points with regard to egress and regress
+in property, the interests of minors, and alterations in the course of
+rivers; and he mentions several cases, some of a criminal nature, which
+had lately occurred at Rome, where the question hinged entirely on the
+civil law, and required constant reference to precedents and authorities.
+Antony, however, explains how all this may be managed. A speaker, for
+example, ignorant of the mode of drawing up an agreement, and unacquainted
+with the forms of a contract, might defend the rights of a woman who has
+been contracted in marriage, because there were persons who brought
+everything to the orator or patron, ready prepared,—presenting him with a
+brief, or memorial, not only on matters of fact, but on the decrees of the
+Senate, the precedents and the opinions of the jurisconsults. It also
+appears that there were solicitors, or professors of civil law, whom the
+orators consulted on any point concerning which they wished to be
+instructed, and the knowledge of which might be necessary previous to
+their appearance in the Forum. In this situation, the harangue of the
+orator was more frequently an appeal to the equity, common sense, or
+feelings of the judge, than to the laws of his country. Now, where a
+pleader addresses himself to the equity of his judges, he has much more
+occasion, and also much more scope, to display his eloquence, than where
+he must draw his arguments from strict law, statutes, and precedents. In
+the former case, many circumstances must be taken into account; many
+personal considerations regarded; and even favour and inclination, which
+it belongs to the orator to conciliate, by his art and eloquence, may be
+disguised under the appearance of equity. Accordingly, Cicero, while
+speaking in his own person, only says, that the science of law and civil
+rights should not be neglected; but he does not seem to consider it as
+essential to the orator of the Forum, while he enlarges on the necessity
+of elegance of language, the erudition of the scholar, a ready and popular
+wit, and a power of moving the passions(305).
+
+That these were the arts to which the Roman orators chiefly trusted for
+success in the causes of their clients, is apparent from the remains of
+their discourses, and from what is said of the mode of pleading in the
+rhetorical treatises of Cicero. “Pontius,” says Antony, in the dialogue so
+often quoted, “had a son, who served in the war with the Cimbri, and whom
+he had destined to be his heir; but his father, believing a false report
+which was spread of his death, made a will in favour of another child. The
+soldier returned after the decease of his parent; and, had you been
+employed to defend his cause, you would not have discussed the legal
+doctrine as to the priority or validity of testaments; you would have
+raised his father from the grave, made him embrace his child, and
+recommend him, with many tears, to the protection of the Centumviri.”
+
+Antony, speaking of one of his own most celebrated orations, says, that
+his whole address consisted, 1st, in moving the passions; 2d, in
+recommending _himself_; and that it was thus, and not by convincing the
+understanding of the judges, that he baffled the impeachment against his
+clients(306). Valerius Maximus has supplied, in his eighth book, many
+examples of unexpected and unmerited acquittals, as well as condemnations,
+from bursts of compassion and theatrical incidents. The wonderful
+influence, too, of a ready and popular wit in the management of causes, is
+apparent from the instances given in the second book _De Oratore_ of the
+effects it had produced in the Forum. The jests which are there recorded,
+though not very excellent, may be regarded as the finest flowers of wit of
+the Roman bar. Sometimes they were directed against the opposite party,
+his patron, or witnesses; and, if sufficiently impudent, seldom failed of
+effect.
+
+That the principles and precepts of the civil law were so little studied
+by the Roman orators, and hardly ever alluded to in their harangues,
+while, on the other hand, the arts of persuasion, and wit, and excitement
+of the passions, were all-powerful, and were the great engines of legal
+discussion, must be attributed to the constitution of the courts of law,
+and the nature of the judicial procedure, which, though very imperfect for
+the administration of justice, were well adapted to promote and exercise
+the highest powers of eloquence. It was the forms of procedure—the
+description of the courts before which questions were tried—and the nature
+of these questions themselves(307)—that gave to Roman oratory such
+dazzling splendour, and surrounded it with a glory, which can never shine
+on the efforts of rhetoric in a better-regulated community, and under a
+more sober dispensation of justice.
+
+The great exhibitions of eloquence were, 1st, In the civil and criminal
+causes tried before the Prætor, or judges appointed under his eye. 2d, The
+discussions on laws proposed in the assemblies of the people. 3d, The
+deliberations of the Senate.
+
+The Prætor sat in the Forum, the name given to the great square situated
+between Mount Palatine and the Capitol, and there administered justice.
+Sometimes he heard causes in the Basilicæ, or halls which were built
+around the Forum; but at other times the court of the Prætor was held in
+the area of the Forum, on which a tribunal was hastily erected, and a
+certain space for the patron, client, and witnesses, was railed off, and
+protected from the encroachment of surrounding spectators. This space was
+slightly covered above for the occasion with canvass, but being exposed to
+the air on all sides, the court was an open one, in the strictest sense of
+the term(308).
+
+From the time of the first Punic war there were two Prætors, to whom the
+cognizance of _civil_ suits was committed,—the _Prætor urbanus_ and
+_Prætor peregrinus_. The former tried the causes of citizens according to
+the Roman laws; the latter judged the cases of allies and strangers by the
+principles of natural equity; but as judicial business multiplied, the
+number of Prætors was increased to six. The Prætor was the chief judge in
+all questions that did not fall under the immediate cognizance of the
+assemblies of the people or the Senate. Every action, therefore, came, in
+the first instance, before the Prætor; but he decided only in civil suits
+of importance: and if the cause was not of sufficient magnitude for the
+immediate investigation of his tribunal, or hinged entirely on matters of
+fact, he appointed one or more persons to judge of it. These were chosen
+from a list of _judices selecti_, which was made up from the three orders
+of senators, knights, and people. If but one person was appointed, he was
+properly called a _judex_, or _arbiter_. The _judex_ determined only such
+cases as were easy, or of small importance; and he was bound to proceed
+according to an express law, or a certain form prescribed to him by the
+Prætor. The _arbiter_ decided in questions of equity which were not
+sufficiently defined by law, and his powers were not so restricted by the
+Prætor as those of the ordinary _judex_. When more persons than one were
+nominated by the Prætor, they were termed _Recuperatores_, and they
+settled points of law or equity requiring much deliberation. Certain
+cases, particularly those relating to testaments or successions, were
+usually remitted by the Prætor to the _Centumviri_, who were 105 persons,
+chosen equally from the thirty-five tribes. The Prætor, before sending a
+case to any of those, whom I may call by the general name of judges,
+though, in fact, they more nearly resembled our jury, made up a _formula_,
+as it was called, or issue on which they were to decide; as, for example,
+“If it be proved that the field is in possession of Servilius, give
+sentence against Catulus, unless he produce a testament, from which it
+shall appear to belong to him.”
+
+It was in presence of these judges that the patrons and orators,
+surrounded by a crowd of friends and retainers, pleaded the causes of
+their clients. They commenced with a brief exposition of the nature of the
+points in dispute. Witnesses were afterwards examined, and the arguments
+on the case were enforced in a formal harangue. A decision was then given,
+according to the opinion of a majority of the judges. The Centumviri
+continued to act as judges for a whole year; but the other _judices_ only
+sat till the particular cause was determined for which they had been
+appointed. They remained, however, on the numerous list of the _judices
+selecti_, and were liable to be again summoned till the end of the year,
+when a new set was chosen for the judicial business of the ensuing season.
+The Prætor had the power of reversing the decisions of the judges, if it
+appeared that any fraud or gross error had been committed. If neither was
+alleged, he charged himself with the duty of seeing the sentence which the
+judges had pronounced carried into execution. Along with his judicial and
+ministerial functions, the Prætor possessed a sort of legislative power,
+by which he supplied the deficiency of laws that were found inadequate for
+many civil emergencies. Accordingly, each new Prætor, as we have already
+seen, when he entered on his office, issued an edict, announcing the
+supplementary code which he intended to follow. Every Prætor had a totally
+different edict; and, what was worse, none thought of adhering to the
+rules which he had himself traced; till at length, in the year 686, the
+Cornelian law, which met with much opposition, prohibited the Prætor from
+departing in practice from those principles, or regulations, he had laid
+down in his edict.
+
+Capital trials, that is, all those which regarded the life or liberty of a
+Roman citizen, had been held in the _Comitia Centuriata_, after the
+institution of these assemblies by Servius Tullius; but the authority of
+the people had been occasionally delegated to Inquisitors, (_Quæsitores_,)
+in points previously fixed by law. For some time, all criminal matters of
+consequence were determined in this manner: But from the multiplicity of
+trials, which increased with the extent and vices of the republic, other
+means of despatching them were necessarily resorted to. The Prætors,
+originally, judged only in civil suits; but in the time of Cicero, and
+indeed from the beginning of the seventh century, four of the six Prætors
+were nominated to preside at criminal trials—one taking cognizance of
+questions of extortion—a second of peculation—a third of illegal
+canvass—and the last, of offences against the state, as the _Crimen
+majestatis_, or treason. To these, Sylla, in the middle of the seventh
+century, added four more, who inquired into acts of public or private
+violence. In trials of importance, the Prætor was assisted by the counsel
+of select judges or jurymen, who originally were all chosen from the
+Senate, and afterwards from the order of Knights; but in Cicero’s time, in
+consequence of a law of Cotta, they were taken from the Senators, Knights,
+and Tribunes of the treasury. The number of these assessors, who were
+appointed for the year, and nominated by the Prætor, varied from 300 to
+600; and from them a smaller number was chosen by lot for each individual
+case. Any Roman citizen might accuse another before the Prætor; and not
+unfrequently the young patricians undertook the prosecution of an
+obnoxious magistrate, merely to recommend themselves to the notice or
+favour of their countrymen. In such cases there was often a competition
+between two persons for obtaining the management of the impeachment, and
+the preference was determined by a previous trial, called _Divinatio_.
+This preliminary point being settled, and the day of the principal trial
+fixed, the accuser, in his first speech, explained the nature of the
+case,—fortifying his statements as he proceeded by proofs, which consisted
+in the voluntary testimony of free citizens, the declarations of slaves
+elicited by torture, and written documents. Cicero made little account of
+the evidence of slaves; but the art of extracting truth from a free
+witness—of exalting or depreciating his character—and of placing his
+deposition in a favourable light, was considered among the most important
+qualifications of an orator. When the evidence was concluded, the
+prosecutor enforced the proofs by a set speech, after which the accused
+entered on his defence.
+
+But though the cognizance of crimes was in ordinary cases delegated to the
+Prætors, still the Comitia reserved the power of judging; and they
+actually did judge in causes, in which the people, or tribunes, who
+dictated to them, took an interest, and these were chiefly impeachments of
+public magistrates, for bribery or peculation. It was not understood, in
+any case, whether tried before the whole people or the Prætor, that either
+party was to be very scrupulous in the observance of truth. The judges,
+too, were sometimes overawed by an array of troops, and by menaces.
+Canvassing for acquittal and condemnation, were alike avowed, and bribery,
+at least for the former purpose, was currently resorted to. Thus the very
+crimes of the wretch who had plundered the province intrusted to his care,
+afforded him the most obvious means of absolution; and, to the wealthy
+peculator, nothing could be more easy than an escape from justice, except
+the opportunity of accusing the innocent and unprotected. “Foreign
+nations,” says Cicero, “will soon solicit the repeal of the law, which
+prohibits the extortions of provincial magistrates; for they will argue,
+that were all prosecutions on this law abolished, their governors would
+take no more than what satisfied their own rapacity, whereas now they
+exact over and above this, as much as will be sufficient to gratify their
+patrons, the _Prætor and the judges_; and that though they can furnish
+enough to glut the avarice of one man, they are utterly unable to pay for
+his impunity in guilt(309).”
+
+The organization of the judicial tribunals was wretched, and their
+practice scandalous. The Senate, Prætors, and Comitia, all partook of the
+legislative and judicial power, and had a sort of reciprocal right of
+opposition and reversal, which they exercised to gratify their avarice or
+prejudices, and not with any view to the ends of justice. But however
+injurious this system might be to those who had claims to urge, or rights
+to defend, it afforded the most ample field for the excursions of
+eloquence. The Prætors, though the supreme judges, were not men bred to
+the law—advanced in years—familiarized with precedents—secure of
+independence—and fixed in their stations for life. They were young men of
+little experience, who held the office for a season, and proceeded through
+it, to what were considered as the most important situations of the
+republic. Though their procedure was strict in some trivial points of
+preliminary form, devised by the ancient Jurisconsults, they enjoyed, in
+more essential matters, a perilous latitude. On the dangerous pretext of
+equity, they eluded the law by various subtilties or fictions; and thus,
+without being endued with legislative authority, they abrogated ancient
+enactments according to caprice. It was worse when, in civil cases, the
+powers of the Prætor were intrusted to the judges; or when, in criminal
+trials, the jurisdiction was assumed by the whole people. The
+inexperience, ignorance, and popular prejudices of those who were to
+decide them, rendered litigations extremely uncertain, and dependent, not
+on any fixed law or principle, but on the opinions or passions of
+tumultuary judges, which were to be influenced and moved by the arts of
+oratory. This furnished ample scope for displaying all that interesting
+and various eloquence, with which the pleadings of the ancient orators
+abounded. The means to be employed for success, were conciliating favour,
+rousing attention, removing or fomenting prejudice, but, above all,
+exciting compassion. Hence we find, that in the defence of a criminal,
+while a law or precedent was seldom mentioned, every thing was introduced
+which could serve to gain the favour of the judges, or move their pity.
+The accused, as soon as the day of trial was fixed, assumed an apparently
+neglected garb; and although allowed, whatever was the crime, to go at
+large till sentence was pronounced, he usually attended in court
+surrounded by his friends, and sometimes accompanied by his children, in
+order to give a more piteous effect to the lamentations and exclamations
+of his counsel, when he came to that part of the oration, in which the
+fallen and helpless state of his client was to be suitably bewailed. Piso,
+justly accused of oppression towards the allies, having prostrated himself
+on the earth in order to kiss the feet of his judges, and having risen
+with his face defiled with mud, obtained an immediate acquittal. Even
+where the cause was good, it was necessary to address the passions, and to
+rely on the judge’s feelings of compassion, rather than on his perceptions
+of right. Rutilius prohibited all exclamations and entreaties to be used
+in his defence: He even forbade the accustomed and expected excitement of
+invocations, and stamping with the feet; and “he was condemned,” says
+Cicero, “though the most virtuous of the Romans, because his counsel was
+compelled to plead for him as he would have done in the republic of
+Plato.” It thus appears, that it was dangerous to trust to innocence
+alone, and the judges were the capricious arbiters of the fate of their
+fellow-citizens, and not (as their situation so urgently required) the
+inflexible interpreters of the laws of their exalted country.
+
+But if the manner of treating causes was favourable to the exertions of
+eloquence, much also must be allowed for the nature of the questions
+themselves, especially those of a criminal description, tried before the
+Prætor or people. One can scarcely figure more glorious opportunities for
+the display of oratory, than were afforded by those complaints of the
+oppressed and plundered provinces against their rapacious governors. From
+the extensive ramifications of the Roman power, there continually arose
+numerous cases of a description that can rarely occur in other countries,
+and which are unexampled in the history of Britain, except in a memorable
+impeachment, which not merely displayed, but created such eloquence as can
+be called forth only by splendid topics, without which rhetorical
+indignation would seem extravagant, and attempted pathos ridiculous.
+
+The spot, too, on which the courts of justice assembled, was calculated to
+inspire and heighten eloquence. The Roman Forum presented one of the most
+splendid spectacles that eye could behold, or fancy conceive. This space
+formed an oblong square between the Palatine and Capitoline hills,
+composed of a vast assemblage of sumptuous though irregular edifices. On
+the side next the Palatine hill stood the ancient Senate-house, and
+Comitium, and Temple of Romulus the Founder. On the opposite quarter, it
+was bounded by the Capitol, with its ascending range of porticos, and the
+temple of the tutelar deity on the summit. The other sides of the square
+were adorned with basilicæ, and piazzas terminated by triumphal arches;
+and were bordered with statues, erected to the memory of the ancient
+heroes or preservers of their country(310). Having been long the theatre
+of the factions, the politics, the intrigues, the crimes, and the
+revolutions of the capital, every spot of its surface was consecrated to
+the recollection of some great incident in the domestic history of the
+Romans; while their triumphs over foreign enemies were vividly called to
+remembrance by the Rostrum itself, which stood in the centre of the vacant
+area, and by other trophies gained from vanquished nations:—
+
+  “Et cristæ capitum, et portarum ingentia claustra,
+  Spiculaque, clipeique, ereptaque rostra carinis(311).”
+
+A vast variety of shops, stored with a profusion of the most costly
+merchandize, likewise surrounded this heart and centre of the world, so
+that it was the mart for all important commercial transactions. Being thus
+the emporium of law, politics, and trade, it became the resort of men of
+business, as well as of those loiterers whom Horace calls _Forenses_. Each
+Roman citizen, regarding himself as a member of the same vast and
+illustrious family, scrutinized with jealous watchfulness the conduct of
+his rulers, and looked with anxious solicitude to the issue of every
+important cause. In all trials of oppression or extortion, the Roman
+multitude took a particular interest,—repairing in such numbers to the
+Forum, that even its spacious square was hardly sufficient to contain
+those who were attracted to it by curiosity; and who, in the course of the
+trial, were in the habit of expressing their feelings by shouts and
+acclamations, so that the orator was ever surrounded by a crowded and
+tumultuary audience. This numerous assembly, too, while it inspired the
+orator with confidence and animation, after he had commenced his harangue,
+created in prospect that anxiety which led to the most careful preparation
+previous to his appearance in public. The apprehension and even
+trepidation felt by the greatest speakers at Rome on the approach of the
+day fixed for the hearing of momentous causes, is evident from many
+passages of the rhetorical works of Cicero. The Roman orator thus
+addressed his judges with all the advantages derived both from the earnest
+study of the closet, and the exhilaration imparted to him by unrestrained
+and promiscuous applause.
+
+2. Next to the courts of justice, the great theatre for the display of
+eloquence, was the Comitia, or assemblies of the people, met to deliberate
+on the proposal of passing a new law, or abrogating an old one. A law was
+seldom offered for consideration but some orator was found to dissuade its
+adoption; and as in the courts of justice the passions of the judges were
+addressed, so the favourers or opposers of a law did not confine
+themselves to the expediency of the measure, but availed themselves of the
+prejudices of the people, alternately confirming their errors, indulging
+their caprices, gratifying their predilections, exciting their jealousies,
+and fomenting their dislikes. Here, more than anywhere, the many were to
+be courted by the few—here, more than anywhere, was created that
+excitement which is most favourable to the influence of eloquence, and
+forms indeed the element in which alone it breathes with freedom.
+
+3. Finally, the deliberations of the Senate, which was the great council
+of the state, afforded, at least to its members, the noblest opportunities
+for the exertions of eloquence. This august and numerous body consisted of
+individuals who had reached a certain age, and who were possessed of a
+certain extent of property, who were supposed to be of unblemished
+reputation, and most of whom had passed through the annual magistracies of
+the state. They were consulted upon almost everything that regarded the
+administration or safety of the commonwealth. The power of making war and
+peace, though it ultimately lay with the people assembled in the Comitia
+Centuriata, was generally left by them entirely to the Senate, who passed
+a decree of peace or war previous to the suffrages of the Comitia. The
+Senate, too, had always reserved to itself the supreme direction and
+superintendance of the religion of the country, and the distribution of
+the public revenue—the levying or disbanding troops, and fixing the
+service on which they should be employed—the nomination of governors for
+the provinces—the rewards assigned to successful generals for their
+victories, and the guardianship of the state in times of civil dissension.
+These were the great subjects of debate in the Senate, and they were
+discussed on certain fixed days of the year, when its members assembled of
+course, or when they were summoned together for any emergency. They
+invariably met in a temple, or other consecrated place, in order to give
+solemnity to their proceedings, as being conducted under the immediate eye
+of Heaven. The Consul, who presided, opened the business of the day, by a
+brief exposition of the question which was to be considered by the
+assembly. He then asked the opinions of the members in the order of rank
+and seniority. Freedom of debate was exercised in its greatest latitude;
+for, though no senator was permitted to deliver his sentiments till it
+came to his turn, he had then a right to speak as long as he thought
+proper, without being in the smallest degree confined to the point in
+question. Sometimes, indeed, the Conscript Fathers consulted on the state
+of the commonwealth in general; but even when summoned to deliberate on a
+particular subject, they seem to have enjoyed the privilege of talking
+about anything else which happened to be uppermost in their minds. Thus we
+find that Cicero took the opportunity of delivering his seventh Philippic
+when the Senate was consulted concerning the Appian Way, the coinage, and
+Luperci—subjects which had no relation to Antony, against whom he
+inveighed from one end of his oration to the other, without taking the
+least notice of the only points which were referred to the consideration
+of the senators(312). The resolution of the majority was expressed in the
+shape of a decree, which, though not properly a law, was entitled to the
+same reverence on the point to which it related; and, except in matters
+where the interests of the state required concealment, all pains were
+taken to give the utmost publicity to the whole proceedings of the Senate.
+
+The number of the Senate varied, but in the time of Cicero, it was nearly
+the same as the British House of Commons; but it required a larger number
+to make a quorum. Sometimes there were between 400 and 500 members
+present; but 200, at least during certain seasons of the year, formed what
+was accounted a full house. This gave to senatorial eloquence something of
+the spirit and animation created by the presence of a popular assembly,
+while at the same time the deliberative majesty of the proceedings
+required a weight of argument and dignity of demeanour, unlooked for in
+the Comitia, or Forum. Accordingly, the levity, ingenuity, and wit, which
+were there so often crowned with success and applause, were considered as
+misplaced in the Senate, where the consular, or prætorian orator, had to
+prevail by depth of reasoning, purity of expression, and an apparent zeal
+for the public good.
+
+It was the authority of the Senate, with the calm and imposing aspect of
+its deliberations, that gave to Latin oratory a somewhat different
+character from the eloquence of Greece, to which, in consequence of the
+Roman spirit of imitation, it bore, in many respects, so close a
+resemblance. The power of the Areopagus, which was originally the most
+dignified assembly at Athens, had been retrenched amid the democratic
+innovations of Pericles. From that period, everything, even the most
+important affairs of state, depended entirely, in the pure democracy of
+Athens, on the opinion, or rather the momentary caprice of an inconstant
+people, who were fond of pleasure and repose, who were easily swayed by
+novelty, and were confident in their power. As their precipitate decisions
+thus often hung on an instant of enthusiasm, the orator required to dart
+into their bosoms those electric sparks of eloquence which inflamed their
+passions, and left no corner of the mind fitted for cool consideration. It
+was the business of the speaker to allow them no time to recover from the
+shock, for its force would have been spent had they been permitted to
+occupy themselves with the beauties of style and diction. “Applaud not the
+orator,” says Demosthenes, at the end of one of his Philippics, “but do
+what I have recommended. I cannot save you by my words, you must save
+yourselves by your actions.” When the people were persuaded, every thing
+was accomplished, and their decision was embodied in a sort of decree by
+the orator. The people of Rome, on the other hand, were more reflective
+and moderate, and less vain than the Athenians; nor was the whole
+authority of the state vested in them. There was, on the contrary, an
+accumulation of powers, and a complication of different interests to be
+managed. Theoretically, indeed, the sovereignty was in the people, but the
+practical government was intrusted to the Senate. As we see from Cicero’s
+third oration, _De Lege Agraria_, the same affairs were often treated at
+the same time in the Senate and on the Rostrum. Hence, in the judicial and
+legislative proceedings, in which, as we have seen, the feelings of the
+judges and prejudices of the vulgar were so frequently appealed to, some
+portion of the senatorial spirit pervaded and controlled the popular
+assemblies, restrained the impetuosity of decision, and gave to those
+orators of the Forum, or Comitia, who had just spoken, or were to speak
+next day in the Senate, a more grave and temperate tone, than if their
+tongues had never been employed but for the purpose of impelling a
+headlong multitude.
+
+But if the Greeks were a more impetuous and inconstant, they were also a
+more intellectual people than the Romans. Literature and refinement were
+more advanced in the age of Pericles than of Pompey. Now, in oratory, a
+popular audience must be moved by what corresponds to the feelings and
+taste of the age. With such an intelligent race as the Greeks, the orator
+was obliged to employ the most accurate reasoning, and most methodical
+arrangement of his arguments. The flowers of rhetoric, unless they grew
+directly from the stem of his discourse, were little admired. The Romans,
+on the other hand, required the excitation of fancy, of comparisons, and
+metaphors, and rhetorical decoration. Hence, the Roman orator was more
+anxious to seduce the imagination than convince the understanding; his
+discourse was adorned with frequent digressions into the field of morals
+and philosophy, and he was less studious of precision than of ornament.
+
+On the whole, the circumstances in the Roman constitution and judicial
+procedure, appear to have wonderfully conspired to render
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  CICERO
+
+
+an accomplished orator. He was born and educated at a period when he must
+have formed the most exalted idea of his country. She had reached the
+height of power, and had not yet sunk into submission or servility. The
+subjects to be discussed, and characters to be canvassed, were thus of the
+most imposing magnitude, and could still be treated with freedom and
+independence. The education, too, which Cicero had received, was highly
+favourable to his improvement. He had the first philosophers of the age
+for his teachers, and he studied the civil law under Scævola, the most
+learned jurisconsult who had hitherto appeared in Rome. When he came to
+attend the Forum, he enjoyed the advantage of daily hearing Hortensius,
+unquestionably the most eloquent speaker who had yet shone in the Forum or
+Senate. The harangues of this great pleader formed his taste, and raised
+his emulation, and, till near the conclusion of his oratorical career,
+acted as an incentive to exertions, which might have abated, had he been
+left without a competitor in the Forum. The blaze of Hortensius’s rhetoric
+would communicate to his rival a brighter flame of eloquence than if he
+had been called on to refute a cold and inanimate adversary. Still,
+however, the great secret of his distinguished oratorical eminence was,
+that notwithstanding his vanity, he never fell into the apathy with regard
+to farther improvement, by which self-complacency is so often attended. On
+the contrary, Cicero, after he had delivered two celebrated orations,
+which filled the Forum with his renown, so far from resting satisfied with
+the acclamations of the capital, abandoned, for a time, the brilliant
+career on which he had entered, and travelled, during two years, through
+the cities of Greece, in quest of philosophical improvement and rhetorical
+instruction.
+
+With powers of speaking beyond what had yet been known in his own country,
+and perhaps not inferior to those which had ever adorned any other, he
+possessed, in a degree superior to all orators, of whatever age or nation,
+a general and discursive acquaintance with philosophy and literature,
+together with an admirable facility of communicating the fruits of his
+labours, in a manner the most copious, perspicuous, and attractive. To
+this extensive knowledge, by which his mind was enriched and supplied with
+endless topics of illustration—to the lofty ideas of eloquence, which
+perpetually revolved in his thoughts—to that image which ever haunted his
+breast, of such infinite and superhuman perfection in oratory, that even
+the periods of Demosthenes did not fill up the measure of his
+conceptions(313), we are chiefly indebted for those emanations of genius,
+which have given, as it were, an immortal tongue to the now desolate Forum
+and ruined Senate of Rome.
+
+The first oration which Cicero pronounced, at least of those which are
+extant, was delivered in presence of four judges appointed by the Prætor,
+and with Hortensius for his opponent. It was in the case of Quintius,
+which was pleaded in the year 672, when Cicero was 26 years of age, at
+which time he came to the bar much later than was usual, after having
+studied civil law under Mucius Scævola, and having further qualified
+himself for the exercise of his profession by the study of polite
+literature under the poet Archias, as also of philosophy under the
+principal teachers of each sect who had resorted to Rome. This case was
+undertaken by Cicero, at the request of the celebrated comedian Roscius,
+the brother-in-law of Quintius; but it was not of a nature well adapted to
+call forth or display any of the higher powers of eloquence. It was a pure
+question of civil right, and, in a great measure, a matter of form; the
+dispute being whether his client had forfeited his recognisances, and
+whether his opponent Nævius had got legal possession of his effects by an
+edict which the Prætor had pronounced, in consequence of the supposed
+forfeiture. But even here, where the point was more one of dry legal
+discussion than in any other oration of Cicero, we meet with much
+invective, calculated to excite the indignation of the judges against the
+adverse party, and many pathetic supplications, interspersed with
+high-wrought pictures of the distresses of his client, in order to raise
+their sympathy in his favour.
+
+_Pro Sext. Roscio_. In the year following that in which he pleaded the
+case of Quintius, Cicero undertook the defence of Roscius of Ameria, which
+was the first public or criminal trial in which he spoke. The father of
+Roscius had two mortal enemies, of his own name and district. During the
+proscriptions of Sylla, he was assassinated one evening at Rome, while
+returning home from supper; and, on pretext that he was in the list
+proscribed, his estate was purchased for a mere nominal price by
+Chrysogonus, a favourite slave, to whom Sylla had given freedom, and whom
+he had permitted to buy the property of Roscius as a forfeiture. Part of
+the valuable lands thus acquired, were made over by Chrysogonus to the
+Roscii. These new proprietors, in order to secure themselves in the
+possession, hired Erucius, an informer and prosecutor by profession, to
+charge the son with the murder of his father, and they, at the same time,
+suborned witnesses, in order to convict him of the parricide. From dread
+of the power of Sylla, the accused had difficulty in prevailing on any
+patron to undertake his cause; but Cicero eagerly embraced this
+opportunity to give a public testimony of his detestation of oppression
+and tyranny. He exculpates his client, by enlarging on the improbability
+of the accusation, whether with respect to the enormity of the crime
+charged, or the blameless character and innocent life of young Roscius. He
+shows, too, that his enemies had completely failed in proving that he
+laboured under the displeasure of his father, or had been disinherited by
+him; and, in particular, that his constant residence in the country was no
+evidence of this displeasure—a topic which leads him to indulge in a
+beautiful commendation of a rural life, and the ancient rustic simplicity
+of the Romans. But while he thus vindicates the innocence of Roscius, the
+orator has so managed his pleading, that it appears rather an artful
+accusation of the two Roscii, than a defence of his own client. He tries
+to fix on them the guilt of the murder, by showing that they, and not the
+son, had reaped all the advantages of the death of old Roscius, and that,
+availing themselves of the strict law, which forbade slaves to be examined
+in evidence against their masters, they would not allow those who were
+with Roscius at the time of his assassination, but had subsequently fallen
+into their own possession, to be put to the torture. The whole case seems
+to have been pleaded with much animation and spirit, but the oration was
+rather too much in that florid Asiatic taste, which Cicero at this time
+had probably adopted from imitation of Hortensius, who was considered as
+the most perfect model of eloquence in the Forum; and hence the celebrated
+passage on the punishment of parricide, (which consisted in throwing the
+criminal, tied up in a sack, into a river,) was condemned by the severer
+taste of his more advanced years. “Its intention,” he declares, “was to
+strike the parricide at once out of the system of nature, by depriving him
+of air, light, water, and earth, so that he who had destroyed the author
+of his existence might be excluded from those elements whence all things
+derived their being. He was not thrown to wild beasts, lest their ferocity
+should be augmented by the contagion of such guilt—he was not committed
+naked to the stream, lest he should contaminate that sea which washed away
+all other pollutions. Everything in nature, however common, was accounted
+too good for him to share in; for what is so common as air to the living,
+earth to the dead, the sea to those who float, the shore to those who are
+cast up. But the parricide lives so as not to breathe the air of heaven,
+dies so that the earth cannot receive his bones, is tossed by the waves so
+as not to be washed by them, so cast on the shore as to find no rest on
+its rocks.” This declamation was received with shouts of applause by the
+audience; yet Cicero, referring to it in subsequent works, calls it the
+exuberance of a youthful fancy, which wanted the control of his sounder
+judgment, and, like all the compositions of young men, was not applauded
+so much on its own account, as for the promise it gave of more improved
+and ripened talents(314). This pleading is also replete with severe and
+sarcastic declamation on the audacity of the Roscii, as well as the
+overgrown power and luxury of Chrysogonus; the orator has even hazarded an
+insinuation against Sylla himself, which, however, he was careful to
+palliate, by remarking, that through the multiplicity of affairs, he was
+obliged to connive at many things which his favourites did against his
+inclination.
+
+Cicero’s courage in defending and obtaining the acquittal of Roscius,
+under the circumstances in which the case was undertaken, was applauded by
+the whole city. By this public opposition to the avarice of an agent of
+Sylla, who was then in the plenitude of his power, and by the energy with
+which he resisted an oppressive proceeding, he fixed his character for a
+fearless and zealous patron of the injured, as much as for an accomplished
+orator. The defence of Roscius, which acquired him so much reputation in
+his youth, was remembered by him with such delight in his old age, that he
+recommends to his son, as the surest path to true honour, to defend those
+who are unjustly oppressed, as he himself had done in many causes, but
+particularly in that of Roscius of Ameria, whom he had protected against
+Sylla himself, in the height of his authority(315).
+
+Immediately after the decision of this cause, Cicero, partly on account of
+his health, and partly for improvement, travelled into Greece and Asia,
+where he spent two years in the assiduous study of philosophy and
+eloquence, under the ablest teachers of Athens and Asia Minor. Nor was his
+style alone formed and improved by imitation of the Greek rhetoricians:
+his pronunciation also was corrected, by practising under Greek masters,
+from whom he learned the art of commanding his voice, and of giving it
+greater compass and variety than it had hitherto attained(316). The first
+cause which he pleaded after his return to Rome, was that of Roscius, the
+celebrated comedian, in a dispute, which involved a mere matter of civil
+right, and was of no peculiar interest or importance. All the orations
+which he delivered during the five following years, are lost, of which
+number were those for Marcus Tullius, and L. Varenus, mentioned by
+Priscian as extant in his time. At the end of that period, however, and
+when Cicero was now in the thirty-seventh year of his age, a glorious
+opportunity was afforded for the display of his eloquence, in the
+prosecution instituted against Verres, the Prætor of Sicily, a criminal
+infinitely more hateful than Catiline or Clodius, and to whom the Roman
+_republic_, at least, never produced an equal in turpitude and crime. He
+was now accused by the Sicilians of many flagrant acts of injustice,
+rapine, and cruelty, committed by him during his triennial government of
+their island, which he had done more to ruin than all the arbitrary acts
+of their native tyrants, or the devastating wars between the Carthaginians
+and Romans.
+
+In the advanced ages of the republic, extortion and violence almost
+universally prevailed among those magistrates who were exalted abroad to
+the temptations of regal power, and whose predecessors, by their
+moderation, had called forth in earlier times the applause of the world.
+Exhausted in fortune by excess of luxury, they now entered on their
+governments only to enrich themselves with the spoils of the provinces
+intrusted to their administration, and to plunder the inhabitants by every
+species of exaction. The first laws against extortion were promulgated in
+the beginning of the seventh century. But they afforded little relief to
+the oppressed nations, who in vain sought redress at Rome; for the
+decisions there depending on judges generally implicated in similar
+crimes, were more calculated to afford impunity to the guilty, than
+redress to the aggrieved. This undue influence received additional weight
+in the case of Verres, from the high quality and connections of the
+culprit.
+
+Such were the difficulties with which Cicero had to struggle, in entering
+on the accusation of this great public delinquent. This arduous task he
+was earnestly solicited to undertake, by a petition from all the towns of
+Sicily, except Syracuse and Messina, both which cities had been
+occasionally allowed by the plunderer to share the spoils of the province.
+Having accepted this trust, so important in his eyes to the honour of the
+republic, neither the far distant evidence, nor irritating delays of all
+those guards of guilt with which Verres was environed, could deter or
+slacken his exertions. The first device on the part of the criminal, or
+rather of his counsel, Hortensius, to defeat the ends of justice, was an
+attempt to wrest the conduct of the trial from the hands of Cicero, by
+placing it in those of Cæcilius(317), who was a creature of Verres, and
+who now claimed a preference to Cicero, on the ground of personal injuries
+received from the accused, and a particular knowledge of the crimes of his
+pretended enemy. The judicial claims of these competitors had therefore to
+be first decided in that kind of process called _Divinatio_, in which
+Cicero delivered his oration, entitled _Contra Cæcilium_, and shewed, with
+much power of argument and sarcasm, that he himself was in every way best
+fitted to act as the impeacher of Verres.
+
+Having succeeded in convincing the judges that Cæcilius only wished to get
+the cause into his own hands, in order to betray it, Cicero was appointed
+to conduct the prosecution, and was allowed 110 days to make a voyage to
+Sicily, in order to collect information for supporting his charge. He
+finished his progress through the island in less than half the time which
+had been granted him. On his return he found that a plan had been laid by
+the friends of Verres, to procrastinate the trial, at least till the
+following season, when they expected to have magistrates and judges who
+would prove favourable to his interests. In this design they so far
+succeeded, that time was not left to go through the cause according to the
+ordinary forms and practice of oratorical discussion in the course of the
+year: Cicero, therefore, resolved to lose no time by enforcing or
+aggravating the several articles of charge, but to produce at once all his
+documents and witnesses, leaving the rhetorical part of the performance
+till the whole evidence was concluded. The first oration, therefore,
+against Verres, which is extremely short, was merely intended to explain
+the motives which had induced him to adopt this unusual mode of procedure.
+He accordingly exposes the devices by which the culprit and his cabal were
+attempting to pervert the course of justice, and unfolds the eternal
+disgrace that would attach to the Roman law, should their stratagems prove
+successful. This oration was followed by the deposition of the witnesses,
+and recital of the documents, which so clearly established the guilt of
+Verres, that, driven to despair, he submitted, without awaiting his
+sentence, to a voluntary exile(318). It therefore appears, that of the six
+orations against Verres, only one was pronounced. The other five, forming
+the series of harangues which he intended to deliver after the proof had
+been completed, were subsequently published in the same shape as if the
+delinquent had actually stood his trial, and was to have made a regular
+defence.
+
+The first of these orations, which to us appears rather foreign to the
+charge, but was meant to render the proper part of the accusation more
+probable, exposes the excesses and malversations committed by Verres in
+early life, before his appointment to the Prætorship of Sicily—his
+embezzlement of public money while Quæstor of Gaul—his extortions under
+Dolabella in Asia, and, finally, his unjust, corrupt, and partial
+decisions while in the office of _Prætor Urbanus_ at Rome, which, forming
+a principal part of the oration, the whole has been entitled _De Prætura
+Urbana_. In the following harangue, entitled _De Jurisdictione
+Siciliensi_, the orator commences with an elegant eulogy on the dignity,
+antiquity, and usefulness of the province, which was not here a mere idle
+or rhetorical embellishment, but was most appropriately introduced, as
+nothing could be better calculated to excite indignation against the
+spoiler of Sicily, than the picture he draws of its beauty; after which,
+he proceeds to give innumerable instances of the flagrant sale of justice,
+offices, and honours, and, among the last, even of the priesthood of
+Jupiter. The next oration is occupied with the malversations of Verres
+concerning grain, and the new ordinances, by which he had contrived to put
+the whole corps of the island at the disposal of his officers. In this
+harangue the dry statements of the prices of corn are rather fatiguing;
+but the following oration, _De Signis_, is one of the most interesting of
+his productions, particularly as illustrating the history of ancient art.
+For nearly six centuries Rome had been filled only with the spoils of
+barbarous nations, and presented merely the martial spectacle of a warlike
+and conquering people. Subsequently, however, to the campaigns in _Magna
+Græcia_, Sicily, and Greece, the Roman commanders displayed at their
+triumphs costly ornaments of gold, pictures, statues, and vases, instead
+of flocks driven from the Sabines or Volsci, the broken arms of the
+Samnites, and empty chariots of the Gauls. The statues and paintings which
+Marcellus transported from Syracuse to Rome, first excited that cupidity
+which led the Roman provincial magistrates to pillage, without scruple or
+distinction, the houses of private individuals, and temples of the
+gods(319). Marcellus and Mummius, however, despoiled only hostile and
+conquered countries. They had made over their plunder to the public, and,
+after it was conveyed to Rome, devoted it to the embellishment of the
+capital; but subsequent governors of provinces having acquired a taste for
+works of art, began to appropriate to themselves those masterpieces of
+Greece, which they had formerly neither known nor esteemed. Some contrived
+plausible pretexts for borrowing valuable works of art from cities and
+private persons, without any intention of restoring them; while others,
+less cautious, or more shameless, seized whatever pleased them, whether
+public or private property, without excuse or remuneration. But though
+this passion was common to most provincial governors, none of them ever
+came up to the full measure of the rapacity of Verres, who, allowing much
+for the high colouring of the counsel and orator, appears to have been
+infected with a sort of disease, or mania, which gave him an irresistible
+propensity to seize whatever he saw or heard of, which was precious either
+in materials or workmanship. For this purpose he retained in his service
+two brothers from Asia Minor, on whose judgment he relied for the choice
+of statues and pictures, and who were employed to search out everything of
+this sort which was valuable in the island. Aided by their suggestions, he
+seized tapestry, pictures, gold and silver plate, vases, gems, and
+Corinthian bronzes, till he literally did not leave a single article of
+value of these descriptions in the whole island. The chief objects of this
+pillage were the statues and pictures of the gods, which the Romans
+regarded with religious veneration; and they, accordingly, viewed such
+rapine as sacrilege. Hence the frequent adjurations and apostrophes to the
+deities who had been insulted, which are introduced in the oration. The
+circumstances of violence and circumvention, under which the depredations
+were committed, are detailed with much vehemence, and at considerable
+length. Some description is given of the works of sculpture; and the names
+of the statuaries by whom they were executed, are also frequently
+recorded. Thus, we are told that Verres took away from a private gentleman
+of Messina the marble Cupid, by Praxiteles: He sacrilegiously tore a
+figure of Victory from the temple of Ceres—he deprived the city Tyndaris
+of an image of Mercury, which had been restored to it from Carthage, by
+Scipio, and was worshipped by the people with singular devotion and an
+annual festival. Some of the works of art were openly carried off—some
+borrowed under plausible pretences, but never restored, and others
+forcibly purchased at an inadequate value. If the speech _De Signis_ be
+the most curious, that _De Suppliciis_ is incomparably the finest of the
+series of _Verrine_ orations. The subject afforded a wider field than the
+former for the display of eloquence, and it presents us with topics of
+more general and permanent interest. Such, indeed, is the vehement pathos,
+and such the resources employed to excite pity in favour of the oppressed,
+and indignation against the guilty, that the genius of the orator is
+nowhere more conspicuously displayed—not even in the Philippics or
+Catilinarian harangues. It was now proved that Verres had practiced every
+species of fraud and depredation, and on these heads no room was left for
+defence. But as the duties of provincial Prætors were twofold—the
+administration of the laws, and the direction of warlike operations—it was
+suspected that the counsel of Verres meant to divert the attention of the
+judges from his avarice to his military conduct and valour. This plea the
+orator completely anticipates. His misconduct, indeed, in the course of
+the naval operations against the pirates, forms one of the chief topics of
+Cicero’s bitter invective. He demonstrates that the fleet had been
+equipped rather for show than for service; that it was unprovided with
+sailors or stores, and altogether unfit to act against an enemy. The
+command was given to Cleomenes, a Syracusan, who was ignorant of naval
+affairs, merely that Verres might enjoy the company of his wife during his
+absence. The description of the sailing of the fleet from Syracuse is
+inimitable, and it is so managed that the whole seems to pass before the
+eyes. Verres, who had not been seen in public for many months, having
+retired to a splendid pavilion, pitched near the fountain of Arethusa,
+where he passed his time in company of his favourites, amidst all the
+delights that arts and luxury could administer, at length appeared, in
+order to view the departure of the squadron; and a Roman Prætor exhibited
+himself, standing on the shore in sandals, with a purple cloak flowing to
+his heels, and leaning on the shoulder of a harlot! The fleet, as was to
+be expected, was driven on shore, and there burned by the pirates, who
+entered Syracuse in triumph, and retired from it unmolested. Verres, in
+order to divert public censure from himself, put the captains of the ships
+to death; and this naturally leads on to the subject which has given name
+to the oration,—the cruel and illegal executions, not merely of Sicilians,
+but Roman citizens. The punishments of death and torture usually reserved
+for slaves, but inflicted by Verres on freemen of Rome, formed the climax
+of his atrocities, which are detailed in oratorical progression. After the
+vivid description of his former crimes, one scarcely expects that new
+terms of indignation will be found; but the expressions of the orator
+become more glowing, in proportion as Verres grows more daring in his
+guilt. The sacred character borne over all the world by a Roman citizen,
+must be fully remembered, in order to read with due feeling the
+description of the punishment of Gavius, who was scourged, and then nailed
+to a cross, which, by a refinement in cruelty, was erected on the shore,
+and facing Italy, that he might suffer death with his view directed
+towards home and a land of liberty. The whole is poured forth in a torrent
+of the most rapid and fervid composition; and had it actually flowed from
+the lips of the speaker, we cannot doubt the prodigious effect it would
+have had on a Roman audience, and on Roman judges. In the oration _De
+Signis_, something, as we have seen, is lost to a modern reader, by the
+diminished reverence for the mythological deities; and, in like manner,
+_we_ cannot enter fully into the spirit of the harangue _De Suppliciis_,
+which is planned with a direct reference to national feeling, to that
+stern decorum which could not be overstepped without shame, and that
+adoration of the majesty of Rome, which invested its citizens with
+inexpressible dignity, and bestowed on them an almost inviolable nature.
+Hence the appearance of Verres in public, in a long purple robe, is
+represented as the climax of his enormities, and the punishment of
+scourging inflicted on a Roman citizen is treated (without any discussion
+concerning the justice of the sentence) as an unheard-of and unutterable
+crime. Yet even those parts least attractive to modern readers, are
+perfect in their execution; and the whole series of orations will ever be
+regarded as among the most splendid monuments of Tully’s transcendent
+genius.
+
+In the renowned cause against Verres, there can be no doubt that the
+orator displayed the whole resources of his vast talents. Every
+circumstance concurred to stimulate his exertions and excite his
+eloquence. It was the first time he had appeared as an accuser in a public
+trial—his clients were the injured people of a mighty province, rivalling
+in importance the imperial state—the inhabitants of Sicily surrounded the
+Forum, and an audience was expected from every quarter of Italy, of all
+that was exalted, intelligent, and refined. But, chiefly, he had a
+subject, which, from the glaring guilt of the accused, and the nature of
+his crimes, was so copious, interesting, and various, so abundant in those
+topics which an orator would select to afford full scope for the exercise
+of his powers, that it was hardly possible to labour tamely or listlessly
+in so rich a mine of eloquence. Such a wonderful assemblage of
+circumstances never yet prepared the course for the triumphs of oratory;
+so great an opportunity for the exhibition of forensic art will, in all
+probability, never again occur. Suffice it to say, that the orator
+surpassed by his workmanship the singular beauty of his materials; and
+instead of being overpowered by their magnitude, derived from the vast
+resources which they supplied the merit of an additional excellence, in
+the skill and discernment of his choice.
+
+The infinite variety of entertaining anecdotes with which the series of
+pleadings against Verres abounds—the works of art which are
+commemorated—the interesting topographical descriptions—the insight
+afforded into the laws and manners of the ancient Sicilians—the
+astonishing profusion of ironical sallies, all conspire to dazzle the
+imagination and rivet the attention of the reader; yet there is something
+in the idea that they were not actually delivered, which detracts from the
+effect of circumstances which would otherwise heighten our feelings. It
+appears to us even preposterous to read, in the commencement of the second
+oration, of a report having been spread that Verres was to abandon his
+defence, but that there he sat braving his accusers and judges with his
+characteristic impudence. The exclamations on his effrontery, and the
+adjurations of the judges, lose their force, when we cannot help
+recollecting that before one word of all this could be pronounced, the
+person against whom they were directed as present had sneaked off into
+voluntary exile. Whatever effect this recollection may have had on the
+ancients, who regarded oratory as an art, and an oration as an elaborate
+composition, nothing can be more grating or offensive to the taste and
+feelings of a modern reader, whose idea of eloquence is that of something
+natural, heart-felt, inartificial, and extemporaneous.
+
+The Sicilians, though they could scarcely have been satisfied with the
+issue of the trial, appear to have been sufficiently sensible of Cicero’s
+great exertions in their behalf. Blainville, in his Travels, mentions,
+that while at Grotta Ferrata, a convent built on the ruins of Cicero’s
+Tusculan Villa, he had been shown a silver medal, unquestionably antique,
+struck by the Sicilians in gratitude for his impeachment of Verres. One
+side exhibits a head of Cicero, crowned with laurel, with the legend _M.
+T. Ciceroni_—on the reverse, there is the representation of three legs
+extended in a triangular position, in the form of the three great capes or
+promontories of Sicily, with the motto,—“_Prostrato Verre Trinacria_.”
+
+_Pro Fonteio_. It is much to be regretted, that the oration for Fonteius,
+the next which Cicero delivered, has descended to us incomplete. It was
+the defence of an unpopular governor, accused of oppression by the
+province intrusted to his administration; and, as such, would have formed
+an interesting contrast to the accusation of Verres.
+
+_Pro Cæcina_. This was a mere question of civil right, turning on the
+effect of a Prætorian edict.
+
+_Pro Lege Manilia_. Hitherto Cicero had only addressed the judges in the
+Forum in civil suits or criminal prosecutions. The oration for the
+Manilian law, which is accounted one of the most splendid of his
+productions, was the first in which he spoke to the whole people from the
+rostrum. It was pronounced in favour of a law proposed by Manilius, a
+tribune of the people, for constituting Pompey sole general, with
+extraordinary powers, in the war against Mithridates and Tigranes, in
+which Lucullus at that time commanded. The chiefs of the Senate regarded
+this law as a dangerous precedent in the republic; and all the authority
+of Catulus, and eloquence of Hortensius, were directed against it. It has
+been conjectured, that in supporting pretensions which endangered the
+public liberty, Cicero was guided merely by interest, since an opposition
+to Pompey might have prevented his own election to the consulship, which
+was now the great object of his ambition. His life, however, and writings,
+will warrant us in ascribing to him a different, though perhaps less
+obvious motive. With the love of virtue and the republic, which glowed so
+intensely in the breast of this illustrious Roman, that less noble
+passion, the immoderate desire of popular fame, was unfortunately mingled.
+“Fame,” says a modern historian, “was the prize at which he aimed; his
+weakness of bodily constitution sought it through the most strenuous
+labours—his natural timidity of mind pursued it through the greatest
+dangers. Pompey, who had fortunately attained it, he contemplated as the
+happiest of men, and was led, from this illusion of fancy, not only to
+speak of him, but really to think of him,” (till he became unfortunate,)
+“with a fondness of respect bordering on enthusiasm. The glare of glory
+that surrounded Pompey, concealed from Cicero his many and great
+imperfections, and seduced an honest citizen, and finest genius in Rome, a
+man of unparalleled industry, and that generally applied to the noblest
+purposes, into the prostitution of his abilities and virtues, for exalting
+an ambitious chief, and investing him with such exorbitant and
+unconstitutional powers, as virtually subverted the commonwealth(320).”
+
+In defending this pernicious measure, Cicero divided his discourse into
+two parts—showing, first, that the importance and imminent dangers of the
+contest in which the state was engaged, required the unusual remedy
+proposed—and, secondly, that Pompey was the fittest person to be intrusted
+with the conduct of the war. This leads to a splendid panegyric on that
+renowned commander, in which, while he does justice to the merits of his
+predecessor, Lucullus, he enlarges on the military skill, valour,
+authority, and good fortune of this present idol of his luxuriant
+imagination, with all the force and beauty which language can afford. He
+fills the imagination with the immensity of the object, kindles in the
+breast an ardour of affection and gratitude, and, by an accumulation of
+circumstances and proofs, so aggrandizes his hero, that he exalts him to
+something more than mortal in the minds of his auditory; while, at the
+same time, every word inspires the most perfect veneration for his
+character, and the most unbounded confidence in his integrity and
+judgment. The whole world is exhibited as an inadequate theatre for the
+actions of such a superior genius; while all the nations, and potentates
+of the earth, are in a manner called as witnesses of his valour and his
+truth. By enlarging on these topics, by the most solemn protestations of
+his own sincerity, and by adducing examples from antiquity, of the state
+having been benefited or saved, by intrusting unlimited power to a single
+person, he allayed all fears of the dangers which it was apprehended might
+result to the constitution, from such extensive authority being vested in
+one individual—and thus struck the first blow towards the subversion of
+the republic!
+
+_Pro Cluentio_. This is a pleading for Cluentius, who, at his mother’s
+instigation, was accused of having poisoned his stepfather, Oppianicus.
+Great part of the harangue appears to be but collaterally connected with
+the direct subject of the prosecution. Oppianicus, it seems, had been
+formerly accused by Cluentius, and found guilty of a similar attempt
+against his life; but after his condemnation, a report became current that
+Cluentius had prevailed in the cause by corrupting the judges, and, to
+remove the unfavourable impression thus created against his client, Cicero
+recurs to the circumstances of that case. In the second part of the
+oration, which refers to the accusation of poisoning Oppianicus, he finds
+it necessary to clear his client from two previous charges of attempts to
+poison. In treating of the proper subject of the criminal proceedings,
+which does not occupy above a sixth part of the whole oration, he shows
+that Cluentius could have had no access or opportunity to administer
+poison to his father, who was in exile; that there was nothing unusual or
+suspicious in the circumstances of his death; and that the charge
+originated in the machinations of Cluentius’ unnatural mother, against
+whom he inveighs with much force, as one hurried along blindfold by
+guilt—who acts with such folly that no one can account her a rational
+creature—with such violence that none can imagine her to be a woman—with
+such cruelty, that none can call her a mother. The whole oration discloses
+such a scene of enormous villainy—of murders, by poison and
+assassination—of incest, and subornation of witnesses, that the family
+history of Cluentius may be regarded as the counterpart in domestic
+society, of what the government of Verres was in public life. Though very
+long, and complicated too, in the subject, it is one of the most correct
+and forcible of all Cicero’s judicial orations; and, under the impression
+that it comes nearer to the strain of a modern pleading than any of the
+others, it has been selected by Dr Blair as the subject of a minute
+analysis and criticism(321).
+
+_De Lege Agraria contra Rullum_. In his discourse _Pro Lege Manilia_, the
+first of the deliberative kind addressed to the assembly of the people,
+Cicero had the advantage of speaking for a favourite of the multitude, and
+against the chiefs of the Senate; but he was placed in a very different
+situation when he came to oppose the Agrarian law. This had been for 300
+years the darling object of the Roman tribes—the daily attraction and
+rallying word of the populace—the signal of discord, and most powerful
+engine of the seditious tribunate. The first of the series of orations
+against the Agrarian law, now proposed by Rullus, was delivered by Cicero
+in the Senate-house, shortly after his election to the consulship: The
+second and third were addressed to the people from the rostrum. The scope
+of the present Agrarian law was, to appoint Decemvirs for the purpose of
+selling the public domains in the provinces, and to recover from the
+generals the spoils acquired in foreign wars, by which a fund might be
+formed for the purchase of lands in Italy, particularly Campania—to be
+equally divided among the people. Cicero, in his first oration, of which
+the commencement is now wanting, quieted the alarms of the Senate, by
+assuring them of his resolution to oppose the law with his utmost power.
+When the question came before the people, he did not fear to encounter the
+Tribunes on their own territory, and most popular subject; he did not
+hesitate to make the rabble judges in their own cause, though one in which
+their passions, interests, and prejudices, and those of their fathers, had
+been engaged for so many centuries. Conscious of his superiority, he
+invited the Tribunes to ascend the rostrum, and argue the point with him
+before the assembled multitude; but the field was left clear to his
+argument and eloquence, and by alternately flattering the people, and
+ridiculing the proposer of the law, he gave such a turn to their
+inclinations, that they rejected the proposition as eagerly as they had
+before received it.
+
+But although the Tribunes were unable to cope with Cicero in the Forum,
+they subsequently contrived to instil suspicions into the minds of the
+populace, with regard to his motives in opposing the Agrarian law. These
+imputations made such an impression on the city, that he found it
+necessary to defend himself against them, in a short speech to the people.
+It has been disputed, whether this third oration was the last which Cicero
+pronounced on occasion of this Agrarian law. In the letters to Atticus,
+while speaking of his consular orations, he says, “that among those sent,
+was that pronounced in the Senate, and that addressed to the people, on
+the Agrarian law(322).” These are the first and second of the speeches,
+which we now have against Rullus; but he also mentions, that there were
+two _apospasmatia_, as he calls them, concerning the Agrarian law. Now,
+what is at present called the third, was probably the first of these two,
+and the last must have perished.
+
+_Pro Rabirio_. About the year 654, Saturninus, a seditious Tribune, had
+been slain by a party attached to the interests of the Senate. Thirty-six
+years afterwards, Rabirius was accused of accession to this murder, by
+Labienus, subsequently well known as Cæsar’s lieutenant in Gaul.
+Hortensius had pleaded the cause before the Duumvirs, Caius and Lucius
+Cæsar, by whom Rabirius being condemned, appealed to the people, and was
+defended by Cicero in the Comitia. The Tribune, it seems, had been slain
+in a tumult during a season of such danger, that a decree had been passed
+by the Senate, requiring the Consuls to be careful that the republic
+received no detriment. This was supposed to sanction every proceeding
+which followed in consequence; and the design of the popular party, in the
+impeachment of Rabirius, was to attack this prerogative of the Senate.
+Cicero’s oration on this contention between the Senatorial and Tribunitial
+power, gives us more the impression of prompt and unstudied eloquence than
+most of his other harangues. It is, however, a little obscure, partly from
+the circumstance that the accuser would not permit him to exceed half an
+hour in the defence. The argument seems to have been, that Rabirius did
+not kill Saturninus; but that even if he had slain him, the action was not
+merely legal, but praiseworthy, since all citizens had been required to
+arm in aid of the Consuls.
+
+It was believed, that in spite of the exertions of Cicero, Rabirius would
+have been condemned, had not the Prætor Metellus devised an expedient for
+dissolving the Comitia, before sentence could be passed. The cause was
+neither farther prosecuted at this time, nor subsequently revived; the
+public attention being now completely engrossed by the imminent dangers of
+the Catilinarian Conspiracy, which was discovered during the Consulship of
+Cicero.
+
+_Contra Catilinam_. The detection and suppression of that nefarious plot,
+form the most glorious part of the political life of Cicero; and the
+orations he pronounced against the chief conspirator, are still regarded
+as the most splendid monuments of his eloquence. It was no longer to
+defend the rights and prerogatives of a municipal town or province, nor to
+move and persuade a judge in favour of an unfortunate client, but to save
+his country and the republic, that Cicero ascended the Rostrum. The
+conspiracy of Catiline tended to the utter extinction of the city and
+government. Cicero, having discovered his design, (which was to leave Rome
+and join his army, assembled in different parts of Italy, while the other
+conspirators remained within the walls, to butcher the Senators and fire
+the capital,) summoned the Senate to meet in the Temple of Jupiter Stator,
+with the intention of laying before it the whole circumstances of the
+plot. But Catiline having unexpectedly appeared in the midst of the
+assembly, his audacity impelled the consular orator into an abrupt
+invective, which is directly addressed to the traitor, and commences
+without the preamble by which most of his other harangues are introduced.
+In point of effect, this oration must have been perfectly electric. The
+disclosure to the criminal himself of his most secret purposes—their
+flagitious nature, threatening the life of every one present—the whole
+course of his villainies and treasons, blazoned forth with the fire of
+incensed eloquence—and the adjuration to him, by flying from Rome, to free
+his country from such a pestilence, were all wonderfully calculated to
+excite astonishment, admiration, and horror. The great object of the whole
+oration, was to drive Catiline into banishment; and it appears somewhat
+singular, that so dangerous a personage, and who might have been so easily
+convicted, should thus have been forced, or even allowed, to withdraw to
+his army, instead of being seized and punished. Catiline having escaped
+unmolested to his camp, the conduct of the Consul in not apprehending, but
+sending away this formidable enemy, had probably excited some censure and
+discontent; and the second Catilinarian oration was in consequence
+delivered by Cicero, in an assembly of the people, in order to justify his
+driving the chief conspirator from Rome. A capital punishment, he admits,
+ought long since to have overtaken Catiline, but such was the spirit of
+the times, that the existence of the conspiracy would not have been
+believed, and he had therefore resolved to place his guilt in a point of
+view so conspicuous, that vigorous measures might without hesitation be
+adopted, both against Catiline and his accomplices. He also takes this
+opportunity to warn his audience against those bands of conspirators who
+still lurked within the city, and whom he divides into various classes,
+describing, in the strongest language, the different degrees of guilt and
+profligacy by which they were severally characterized.
+
+Manifest proofs of the whole plot having been at length obtained, by the
+arrest of the ambassadors from the Allobroges, with whom the conspirators
+had tampered, and who were bearing written credentials from them to their
+own country, Cicero, in his third oration, laid before the people all the
+particulars of the discovery, and invited them to join in celebrating a
+thanksgiving, which had been decreed by the Senate to his honour, for the
+preservation of his country.
+
+The last Catilinarian oration was pronounced in the Senate, on the debate
+concerning the punishment to be inflicted on the conspirators. Silanus had
+proposed the infliction of instant death, while Cæsar had spoken in favour
+of the more lenient sentence of perpetual imprisonment. Cicero does not
+precisely declare for any particular punishment; but he shows that his
+mind evidently inclined to the severest, by dwelling on the enormity of
+the conspirators’ guilt, and aggravating all their crimes with much
+acrimony and art. His sentiments finally prevailed; and those
+conspirators, who had remained in Rome, were strangled under his immediate
+superintendence.
+
+In these four orations, the tone and style of each of them, particularly
+of the first and last, is very different, and accommodated with a great
+deal of judgment to the occasion, and to the circumstances under which
+they were delivered. Through the whole series of the Catilinarian
+orations, the language of Cicero is well calculated to overawe the wicked,
+to confirm the good, and encourage the timid. It is of that description
+which renders the mind of one man the mind of a whole assembly, or a whole
+people(323).
+
+_Pro Muræna_.—The Comitia being now held in order to choose Consuls for
+the ensuing year, Junius Silanus and Muræna were elected. The latter
+candidate had for his competitor the celebrated jurisconsult Sulpicius
+Rufus; who, being assisted by Cato, charged Muræna with having prevailed
+by bribery and corruption. This impeachment was founded on the Calpurnian
+law, which had lately been rendered more strict, on the suggestion of
+Sulpicius, by a _Senatusconsultum_. Along with this accusation, the
+profligacy of Muræna’s character was objected to, and also the meanness of
+his rank, as he was but a knight and soldier, whereas Sulpicius was a
+patrician and lawyer. Cicero therefore shows, in the first place, that he
+amply merited the consulship, from his services in the war with
+Mithridates, which introduces a comparison between a military and forensic
+life. While he pays his usual tribute of applause to cultivated eloquence,
+he derides the forms and phraseology of the jurisconsults, by whom the
+civil law was studied and practised. As to the proper subject of the
+accusation, bribery in his election, it seems probable that Muræna had
+been guilty of some practices which, strictly speaking, were illegal, yet
+were warranted by custom. They seem to have consisted in encouraging a
+crowd to attend him on the streets, and in providing shows for the
+entertainment of the multitude; which, though expected by the people, and
+usually overlooked by the magistrates, appeared heinous offences in the
+eye of the rigid and stoical Cato. Aware of the weight added to the
+accusation by his authority, Cicero, in order to obviate this influence,
+treats his stoical principles in the same tone which he had already used
+concerning the profession of Sulpicius. In concluding, he avails himself
+of the difficulties of the times, and the yet unsuppressed conspiracy of
+Catiline, which rendered it unwise to deprive the city of a Consul well
+qualified to defend it in so dangerous a crisis.
+
+This case was one of great expectation, from the dignity of the
+prosecutors, and eloquence of the advocates for the accused. Before Cicero
+spoke, it had been pleaded by Hortensius, and Crassus the triumvir; and
+Cicero, in engaging in the cause, felt the utmost desire to surpass these
+rivals of his eloquence. Such was his anxiety, that he slept none during
+the whole night which preceded the hearing of the cause; and being thus
+exhausted with care, his eloquence on this occasion fell short of that of
+Hortensius(324). He shows, however, much delicacy and art in the manner in
+which he manages the attack on the philosophy of Cato, and profession of
+Sulpicius, both of whom were his particular friends, and high in the
+estimation of the judges he addressed(325).
+
+_Pro Valerio Flacco_.—Flaccus had aided Cicero in his discovery of the
+conspiracy of Catiline, and, in return, was defended by him against a
+charge of extortion and peculation, brought by various states of Asia
+Minor, which he had governed as Pro-prætor.
+
+_Pro Cornelio Sylla_.—Sylla, who was afterwards a great partizan of
+Cæsar’s, was prosecuted for having been engaged in Catiline’s conspiracy;
+but his accuser, Torquatus, digressing from the charge against Sylla,
+turned his raillery on Cicero; alleging, that he had usurped the authority
+of a king; and asserting, that he was the third foreign sovereign who had
+reigned at Rome after Numa and Tarquin. Cicero, therefore, in his reply,
+had not only to defend his client, but to answer the petulant raillery by
+which his antagonist attempted to excite envy and odium against himself.
+He admits that he was a foreigner in one sense of the word, having been
+born in a municipal town of Italy, in common with many others who had
+rendered the highest services to the city; but he repels the insinuation
+that he usurped any kingly authority; and being instigated by this
+unmerited attack, he is led on to the eulogy of his own conduct and
+consulship,—a favourite subject, from which he cannot altogether depart,
+even when he enters more closely into the grounds of the prosecution.
+
+For this defence of Cornelius Sylla, Cicero privately received from his
+client the sum of 20,000 sesterces, which chiefly enabled him to purchase
+his magnificent house on the Palatine Hill.
+
+_Pro Archia_.—This is one of the orations of Cicero on which he has
+succeeded in bestowing the finest polish, and it is perhaps the most
+_pleasing_ of all his harangues. Archias had been his preceptor, and,
+after having obtained much reputation by his Greek poems, on the triumphs
+of Lucullus over Mithridates, and of Marius over the Cimbri, was now
+attempting to celebrate the consulship of Cicero; so that the orator, in
+pleading his cause, expected to be requited by the praises of his muse.
+
+This poet was a native of Antioch, and, having come to Italy in early
+youth, was rewarded for his learning and genius with the friendship of the
+first men in the state, and with the citizenship of Heraclea, a
+confederate and enfranchised town of Magna Græcia. A few years afterwards,
+a law was enacted, conferring the rights of Roman citizens on all who had
+been admitted to the freedom of federate states, provided they had a
+settlement in Italy at the time when the law was passed, and had asserted
+the privilege before the Prætor within sixty days from the period at which
+it was promulgated. After Archias had enjoyed the benefit of this law for
+more than twenty years, his claims were called in question by one
+Gracchus, who now attempted to drive him from the city, under the
+enactment expelling all foreigners who usurped, without due title, the
+name and attributes of Roman citizens. The loss of records, and some other
+circumstances, having thrown doubts on the legal right of his client,
+Cicero chiefly enlarged on the dignity of literature and poetry, and the
+various accomplishments of Archias, which gave him so just a claim to the
+privileges he enjoyed. He beautifully describes the influence which study
+and a love of letters had exercised on his own character and conduct. He
+had thence imbibed the principle, that glory and virtue should be the
+darling objects of life, and that to attain these, all difficulties, or
+even dangers, were to be despised. But, of all names dear to literature
+and genius, that of poet was the most sacred: hence it would be an extreme
+of disgrace and profanation, to reject a bard who had employed the utmost
+efforts of his art to make Rome immortal by his muse, and had possessed
+such prevailing power as to touch with pleasure even the stubborn and
+intractable soul of Marius.
+
+The whole oration is interspersed with beautiful maxims and sentences,
+which have been quoted with delight in all ages. There appears in it,
+however, perhaps too much, and certainly more than in the other orations,
+of what Lord Monboddo calls _concinnity_. “We have in it,” observes he,
+speaking of this oration, “strings of antitheses, the figure of like
+endings, and a perfect similarity of the structure, both as to the
+grammatical form of the words, and even the number of them(326).” The
+whole, too, is written in a style of exaggeration and immoderate praise.
+The orator talks of the poet Archias, as if the whole glory of Rome, and
+salvation of the commonwealth, depended on his poetical productions, and
+as if the smallest injury offered to him would render the name of Rome
+execrable and infamous in all succeeding generations.
+
+_Pro Cn. Plancio_.—The defence of Plancius was one of the first orations
+pronounced by Cicero after his return from banishment. Plancius had been
+Quæstor of Macedon when Cicero came to that country during his exile, and
+had received him with honours proportioned to his high character, rather
+than his fallen fortunes. In return for this kindness, Cicero undertook
+his defence against a charge, preferred by a disappointed competitor, of
+bribery and corruption in suing for the ædileship.
+
+_Pro Sextio_.—This is another oration produced by the gratitude of Cicero,
+and the circumstances of his banishment. Sextius, while Tribune of the
+people, had been instrumental in procuring his recall, and Cicero requited
+this good office by one of the longest and most elaborate of his
+harangues. The accusation, indeed, was a consequence of his interposition
+in favour of the illustrious exile; for when about to propose his recall
+to the people, he was violently attacked by the Clodian faction, and left
+for dead on the street. His enemies, however, though obviously the
+aggressors, accused him of violence, and exciting a tumult. This was the
+charge against which Cicero defended him. The speech is valuable for the
+history of the times; as it enters into all the recent political events in
+which Cicero had borne so distinguished a part. The orator inveighs
+against his enemies, the Tribune Clodius, and the Consuls Gabinius and
+Piso, and details all the circumstances connected with his own banishment
+and return, occasionally throwing in a word or two about his client
+Sextius.
+
+_Contra Vatinium_.—Vatinius, who belonged to the Clodian faction,
+appeared, at the trial of Sextius, as a witness against him. This gave
+Cicero an opportunity of interrogating him; and the whole oration being a
+continued invective on the conduct of Vatinius, poured forth in a series
+of questions, without waiting for an answer to any of them, has been
+entitled, _Interrogatio_.
+
+_Pro Cælio_.—Middleton has pronounced this to be the most entertaining of
+the orations which Cicero has left us, from the vivacity of wit and humour
+with which he treats the gallantries of Clodia, her commerce with Cælius,
+and in general the gaieties and licentiousness of youth.
+
+Cælius was a young man of considerable talents and accomplishments, who
+had been intrusted to the care of Cicero on his first introduction to the
+Forum; but having imprudently engaged in an intrigue with Clodia, the
+well-known sister of Clodius, and having afterwards deserted her, she
+accused him of an attempt to poison her, and of having borrowed money from
+her in order to procure the assassination of Dio, the Alexandrian
+ambassador. In this, as in most other prosecutions of the period, a number
+of charges, unconnected with the main one, seem to have been accumulated,
+in order to give the chief accusation additional force and credibility.
+Cicero had thus to defend his client against the suspicions arising from
+the general libertinism of his conduct. He justifies that part of it which
+related to his intercourse with Clodia, by enlarging on the loose
+character of this woman, whom he treats with very little ceremony; and, in
+order to place her dissolute life in a more striking point of view, he
+conjures up in fancy one of her grim and austere ancestors of the Clodian
+family reproaching her with her shameful degeneracy. All this the orator
+was aware would not be sufficient for the complete vindication of his
+client; and it is curious to remark the ingenuity with which the strenuous
+advocate of virtue and regularity of conduct palliates, on this occasion,
+the levities of youth,—not, indeed, by lessening the merits of strict
+morality, but by representing those who withstand the seductions of
+pleasure as supernaturally endued.
+
+This oration was a particular favourite of one who was long a
+distinguished speaker in the British Senate. “By the way,” says Mr Fox, in
+a letter to Wakefield, “I know no speech of Cicero more full of beautiful
+passages than this is, nor where he is more in his element. Argumentative
+contention is what he by no means excels in; and he is never, I think, so
+happy as when he has an opportunity of exhibiting a mixture of philosophy
+and pleasantry; and especially when he can interpose anecdotes and
+references to the authority of the eminent characters in the history of
+his country. No man appears, indeed, to have had such real respect for
+authority as he; and therefore, when he speaks upon that subject, he is
+always natural and in earnest; and not like those among _us_, who are so
+often declaiming about the wisdom of our ancestors, without knowing what
+they mean, or hardly ever citing any particulars of their conduct, or of
+their _dicta_(327).”
+
+_De Provinciis Consularibus_. The government of Gaul was continued to
+Cæsar, in consequence of this oration, so that it may be considered as one
+of the immediate causes of the ruin of the Roman Republic, which it was
+incontestibly the great wish of Cicero to protect and maintain inviolate.
+But Cicero had evidently been duped by Cæsar, as he formerly had nearly
+been by Catiline, and as he subsequently was by Octavius, Pollio, and
+every one who found it his interest to cajole him, by proclaiming his
+praises, and professing ardent zeal for the safety of the state. So little
+had he penetrated the real views of Cæsar, that we find him asking the
+Senate, in his oration, what possible motive or inducement Cæsar could
+have to remain in the province of Gaul, except the public good. “For would
+the amenity of the regions, the beauty of the cities, or civilization of
+the inhabitants, detain him there—or can a return to one’s native country
+be so distasteful?”
+
+_Pro Cornelio Balbo_.—Balbus was a native of Cadiz, who having been of
+considerable service to Pompey, during his war in Spain, against
+Sertorius, had, in return, received the freedom of Rome from that
+commander, in virtue of a special law, by which he had obtained the power
+of granting this benefit to whom he chose. The validity of Pompey’s act,
+however, was now questioned, on the ground that Cadiz was not within the
+terms of that relation and alliance to Rome, which could, under any
+circumstances, entitle its citizens to such a privilege. The question,
+therefore, was, whether the inhabitants of a federate state, which had not
+adopted the institutions and civil jurisprudence of Rome, could receive
+the rights of citizenship. This point was of great importance to the
+municipal towns of the Republic, and the oration throws considerable light
+on the relations which existed between the provinces and the capital.
+
+_In Pisonem_.—Piso having been recalled from his government of Macedon, in
+consequence of Cicero’s oration, _De Provinciis Consularibus_, he
+complained, in one of his first appearances in the Senate, of the
+treatment he had received, and attacked the orator, particularly on the
+score of his poetry, ridiculing the well known line,
+
+  “Cedant arma togæ—concedat laurea linguæ.”
+
+Cicero replied in a bitter invective, in which he exposed the whole life
+and conduct of his enemy to public contempt and detestation. The most
+singular feature of this harangue is the personal abuse and coarseness of
+expression it contains, which appear the more extraordinary when we
+consider that it was delivered in the Senate-house, and directed against
+an individual of such distinction and consequence as Piso. Cicero applies
+to him the opprobrious epithets of _bellua_, _furia_, _carnifex_,
+_furcifer_, &c.; he banters him on his personal deformities, and upbraids
+him with his ignominious descent on one side of the family, while, on the
+other, he had no resemblance to his ancestors, except to the sooty
+complexion of their images.
+
+_Pro Milone_.—When Milo was candidate for the Consulship, the notorious
+demagogue Clodius supported his competitors, and during the canvass, party
+spirit grew so violent, that the two factions often came to blows within
+the walls of the city. While these dissensions were at their height,
+Clodius and Milo met on the Appian Way—the former returning from the
+country towards Rome, and the latter setting out for Lanuvium, both
+attended by a great retinue. A quarrel arose among their followers, in
+which Clodius was wounded and carried into a house in the vicinity. By
+order of Milo, the doors were broken open, his enemy dragged out, and
+assassinated on the highway. The death of Clodius excited much confusion
+and tumult at Rome, in the course of which the courts of justice were
+burned by a mob. Milo having returned from the banishment into which he
+had at first withdrawn, was impeached for the crime by the Tribunes of the
+people; and Pompey, in virtue of the authority conferred on him by a
+decree of the Senate, nominated a special commission to inquire into the
+murder committed on the Appian Way. In order to preserve the tranquillity
+of the city, he placed guards in the Forum, and occupied all its avenues
+with troops. This unusual appearance, and the shouts of the Clodian
+faction, which the military could not restrain, so discomposed the orator,
+that he fell short of his usual excellence. The speech which he actually
+delivered, was taken down in writing, and is mentioned by Asconius
+Pedianus as still extant in his time. But that beautiful harangue which we
+now possess, is one which was retouched and polished, as a gift for Milo,
+after he had retired in exile to Marseilles.
+
+In the oration, as we now have it, Cicero takes his exordium from the
+circumstances by which he was so much, though, as he admits, so
+causelessly disconcerted; since he knew that the troops were not placed in
+the Forum to overawe, but to protect. In entering on the defence, he
+grants that Clodius was killed, and by Milo; but he maintains that
+homicide is, on many occasions, justifiable, and on none more so than when
+force can only be repelled by force, and when the slaughter of the
+aggressor is necessary for self-preservation. These principles are
+beautifully illustrated, and having been, as the orator conceives,
+sufficiently established, are applied to the case under consideration. He
+shows, from the circumstantial evidence of time and place—the character of
+the deceased—the retinue by which he was accompanied—his hatred to
+Milo—the advantages which would have resulted to him from the death of his
+enemy, and the expressions proved to have been used by him, that Clodius
+had laid an ambush for Milo. Cicero, it is evident, had here the worst of
+the cause. The encounter appears, in fact, to have been accidental; and
+though the servants of Clodius may, perhaps, have been the assailants,
+Milo had obviously exceeded the legitimate bounds of self defence. The
+orator accordingly enforces the argument, that the assassination of
+Clodius was an act of public benefit, which, in a consultation of Milo’s
+friends, was the only one intended to have been advanced, and was the sole
+defence adopted in the oration which Brutus is said to have prepared for
+the occasion. Cicero, while he does not forego the advantage of this plea,
+maintains it hypothetically, contending that _even if_ Milo had openly
+pursued and slain Clodius as a common enemy, he might well boast of having
+freed the state from so pernicious and desperate a citizen. To add force
+to this argument, he takes a rapid view of the various acts of atrocity
+committed by Clodius, and the probable situation of the Republic, were he
+to revive. When the minds of the judges were thus sufficiently prepared,
+he ascribes his tragical end to the immediate interposition of the
+providential powers, specially manifested by his fall near the temple of
+Bona Dea, whose mysteries he had formerly profaned. Having excited
+sufficient indignation against Clodius, he concludes with moving
+commiseration for Milo, representing his love for his country and
+fellow-citizens,—the sad calamity of exile from Rome,—and his manly
+resignation to whatever punishment might be inflicted on him.
+
+The argument in this oration was perhaps as good as the circumstances
+admitted; but we miss through the whole that reference to documents and
+laws, which gives the stamp of truth to the orations of Demosthenes. Each
+ground of defence, taken by itself, is deficient in argumentative force.
+Thus, in maintaining that the death of Clodius was of no benefit to Milo,
+he has taken too little into consideration the hatred and rancour mutually
+felt by the heads of political factions: but he supplies his weakness of
+argument by illustrative digressions, flashes of wit, bursts of eloquence,
+and appeals to the compassion of the judges, on which he appears to have
+placed much reliance(328). On the whole, this oration was accounted, both
+by Cicero himself and by his contemporaries, as the finest effort of his
+genius; which confirms what indeed is evinced by the whole history of
+Roman eloquence, that the judges were easily satisfied on the score of
+reasoning, and attached more importance to pathos, and wit, and sonorous
+periods, than to fact or law.
+
+_Pro Rabirio Postumo_.—This is the defence of Rabirius, who was prosecuted
+for repayment of a sum which he was supposed to have received, in
+conjunction with the Proconsul Gabinius, from King Ptolemy, for having
+placed him on the throne of Egypt, contrary to the injunctions of the
+Senate.
+
+_Pro Ligario_.—This oration was pronounced after Cæsar, having vanquished
+Pompey in Thessaly, and destroyed the remains of the Republican party in
+Africa, assumed the supreme administration of affairs at Rome. Merciful as
+the conqueror appeared, he was understood to be much exasperated against
+those who, after the rout at Pharsalia, had renewed the war in Africa.
+Ligarius, when on the point of obtaining a pardon, was formally accused by
+his old enemy Tubero, of having borne arms in that contest. The Dictator
+himself presided at the trial of the case, much prejudiced against
+Ligarius, as was known from his having previously declared, that his
+resolution was fixed, and was not to be altered by the charms of
+eloquence. Cicero, however, overcame his prepossessions, and extorted from
+him a pardon. The countenance of Cæsar, it is said, changed, as the orator
+proceeded in his speech; but when he touched on the battle of Pharsalia,
+and described Tubero as seeking his life, amid the ranks of the army, the
+Dictator became so agitated, that his body trembled, and the papers which
+he held dropped from his hand(329).
+
+This oration is remarkable for the free spirit which it breathes, even in
+the face of that power to which it was addressed for mercy. But Cicero, at
+the same time, shows much art in not overstepping those limits, within
+which he knew he might speak without offence, and in seasoning his freedom
+with appropriate compliments to Cæsar, of which, perhaps, the most elegant
+is, that he forgot nothing but the injuries done to himself. This was the
+person whom, in the time of Pompey, he characterized as _monstrum et
+portentum tyrannum_, and whose death he soon afterwards celebrated as
+_divinum in rempublicam beneficium_!
+
+The oration of Tubero against Ligarius, was extant in Quintilian’s time,
+and probably explained the circumstances which induced a man, who had
+fought so keenly against Cæsar at Pharsalia, to undertake the prosecution
+of Ligarius.
+
+_Pro Rege Dejotaro_.—Dejotarus was a Tetrarch of Galatia, who obtained
+from Pompey the realm of Armenia, and from the Senate the title of King.
+In the civil war he had espoused the cause of his benefactors. Cæsar, in
+consequence, deprived him of Armenia, but was subsequently reconciled to
+him, and, while prosecuting the war against Pharnaces, visited him in his
+original states of Galatia. Some time afterwards, Phidippus, the physician
+of the king, and his grandson Castor, accused him of an attempt to poison
+Cæsar, during the stay which the Dictator had made at his court. Cicero
+defended him in the private apartments of Cæsar, and adopted the same
+happy union of freedom and flattery, which he had so successfully employed
+in the case of Ligarius. Cæsar, however, pronounced no decision on the one
+side or other.
+
+_Philippica_.—The remaining orations of Cicero are those directed against
+Antony, of whose private life and political conduct they present us with a
+full and glaring picture. The character of Antony, next to that of Sylla,
+was the most singular in the Annals of Rome, and in some of its features
+bore a striking resemblance to that of the fortunate Dictator. Both were
+possessed of uncommon military talents—both were imbued with cruelty which
+makes human nature shudder—both were inordinately addicted to luxury and
+pleasure—and both, for men of their powers of mind and habits, had
+apparently, at least, a strange superstitious reliance on destiny,
+portents, and omens. Yet there were strong shades of distinction even in
+those parts of their characters in which we trace the closest resemblance:
+The cruelty of Sylla was more deliberate and remorseless—that of Antony,
+more regardless and unthinking—and amid all the atrocities of the latter,
+there burst forth occasional gleams of generosity and feeling. But then
+Sylla was a man of much greater discernment and penetration—a much more
+profound and successful dissembler—and he was possessed of many refined
+and elegant accomplishments, of which the coarser Antony was destitute.
+Sylla gratified his voluptuousness, but Antony was ruled by it. The former
+indulged in pleasure when within his grasp, but ease, power, and revenge,
+were his great and ultimate objects: The chief aim of the latter, was the
+sensual pleasure to which he was subservient. Sylla would never have been
+the slave of Cleopatra, or the dupe of Octavius. Hence the wide difference
+between the destiny of the triumphant Dictator, whose chariot rolled on
+the wheels of Fortune to the close of his career, and the sad fate of
+Antony. Yet that very fate has mitigated the abhorrence of posterity, and
+weakness having been added to wickedness, has unaccountably palliated, in
+our eyes, the faults of the soft Triumvir, now more remembered as the
+devoted lover of Cleopatra, than as the chief promoter of the
+Proscriptions.
+
+The Philippics against Antony, like those of Demosthenes, derive their
+chief beauty from the noble expression of just indignation, which indeed
+composes many of the most splendid and admired passages of ancient
+eloquence. They were all pronounced during the period which elapsed
+between the assassination of Cæsar, and the defeat of Antony at Modena.
+Soon after Cæsar’s death, Cicero, fearing danger from Antony, who held a
+sort of military possession of the city, resolved on a voyage to Greece.
+Being detained, however, by contrary winds, after he had set out, and
+having received favourable intelligence from his friends at Rome, he
+determined to return to the capital. The Senate assembled the day after
+his arrival, in order, at the suggestion of Antony, to consider of some
+new and extraordinary honours to the memory of Cæsar. To this meeting
+Cicero was specially summoned by Antony, but he excused himself on
+pretence of indisposition, and the fatigue of his journey. He appeared,
+however, in his place, when the Senate met on the following day, in
+absence of Antony, and delivered the first of the orations, afterwards
+termed Philippics, from the resemblance they bore to those invectives
+which Demosthenes poured forth against the great foe of the independence
+of Greece. Cicero opens his speech by explaining the motives of his recent
+departure from Rome—his sudden return, and his absence on the preceding
+day—declaring, that if present, he would have opposed the posthumous
+honours decreed to the usurper. His next object, after vindicating
+himself, being to warn the Senate of the designs of Antony, he complains
+that he had violated the most solemn and authentic even of Cæsar’s laws;
+and at the same time enforced, as ordinances, what were mere jottings,
+found, or pretended to have been found, among the Dictator’s _Memoranda_,
+after his death.
+
+Antony was highly incensed at this speech, and summoned another meeting of
+the Senate, at which he again required the presence of Cicero. These two
+rivals seem to have been destined never to meet in the Senate-house.
+Cicero, being apprehensive of some design against his life, did not
+attend; so that the Oration of Antony, in his own justification, which he
+had carefully prepared in intervals of leisure at his villa, near Tibur,
+was unanswered in the Senate. The second Philippic was penned by Cicero in
+his closet, as a reply to this speech of Antony, in which he had been
+particularly charged with having been not merely accessary to the murder
+of Cæsar, but the chief contriver of the plot against him. Some part of
+Cicero’s oration was thus necessarily defensive, but the larger portion,
+which is accusatory, is one of the severest and most bitter invectives
+ever composed, the whole being expressed in terms of the most thorough
+contempt and strongest detestation of Antony. By laying open his whole
+criminal excesses from his earliest youth, he exhibits one continued scene
+of debauchery, faction, rapine, and violence; but he dwells with peculiar
+horror on his offer of the diadem to Cæsar, at the festival of the
+Lupercalia—his drunken debauch at the once classic villa of Terentius
+Varro—and his purchase of the effects that belonged to the great Pompey—on
+which last subject he pathetically contrasts the modesty and decorum of
+that renowned warrior, once the Favourite of Fortune, and darling of the
+Roman people, with the licentiousness of the military adventurer who now
+rioted in the spoils of his country. In concluding, he declares, on his
+own part, that in his youth he had defended the republic, and, in his old
+age, he would not abandon its cause.—“The sword of Catiline I despised;
+and never shall I dread that of Antony.” This oration is adorned with all
+the charms of eloquence, and proves, that in the decline of life Cicero
+had not lost one spark of the fire and spirit which animated his earlier
+productions. Although not delivered in the Senate, nor intended to be
+published till things were actually come to an extremity, and the affairs
+of the republic made it necessary to render Antony’s conduct and designs
+manifest to the people, copies of the oration were sent to Brutus,
+Cassius, and other friends of the commonwealth: hence it soon got into
+extensive circulation, and, by exciting the vengeance of Antony, was a
+chief cause of the tragical death of its author.
+
+The situation of Antony having now become precarious, from the union of
+Octavius with the party of the Senate, and the defection of two legions,
+he abruptly quitted the city, and placing himself at the head of his army,
+marched into Cisalpine Gaul, which, since the death of Cæsar, had been
+occupied by Decimus Brutus, one of the conspirators. The field being thus
+left clear for Cicero, and the Senate being assembled, he pronounced the
+third Philippic, of which the great object was to induce it to support
+Brutus, by placing an army at the disposal of Octavius, along with the two
+Consuls elect, Hirtius and Pansa. He exhorts the Senate to this measure,
+by enlarging on the merits of Octavius and Brutus, and concludes with
+proposing public thanks to these leaders, and to the legions which had
+deserted the standard of Antony.
+
+From the Senate, Cicero proceeded directly to the Forum, where, in his
+fourth Philippic, he gave an account to the people of what had occurred,
+and explained to them, that Antony, though not nominally, had now been
+actually declared the enemy of his country. This harangue was so well
+received by an audience the most numerous that had ever listened to his
+orations, that, speaking of it afterwards, he declares he would have
+reaped sufficient fruit from the exertions of his whole life, had he died
+on the day it was pronounced, when the whole people, with one voice and
+mind, called out that he had twice saved the republic(330).
+
+Brutus being as yet unable to defend himself in the field, withdrew into
+Modena, where he was besieged by Antony. Intelligence of this having been
+brought to Rome, Cicero, in his fifth Philippic, endeavoured to persuade
+the Senate to proclaim Antony an enemy of his country, in opposition to
+Calenus, who proposed, that before proceeding to acts of hostility, an
+embassy should be sent for the purpose of admonishing Antony to desist
+from his attempt on Gaul, and submit himself to the authority of the
+Senate. After three days’ successive debate, Cicero’s proposal would have
+prevailed, had not one of the Tribunes interposed his negative, in
+consequence of which the measure of the embassy was resorted to. Cicero,
+nevertheless, before any answer could be received, persisted, in his sixth
+and seventh Philippics, in asserting that any accommodation with a rebel
+such as Antony, would be equally disgraceful and dangerous to the
+republic. The deputies having returned, and reported that Antony would
+consent to nothing which was required of him, the Senate declared war
+against him—employing, however, in their decree, the term tumult, instead
+of war or rebellion. Cicero, in his eighth Philippic, expostulated with
+them on their timorous and impolitic lenity of expression. In the ninth
+Philippic, pronounced on the following day, he called on the Senate to
+erect a statue to one of the deputies, Servius Sulpicius, who, while
+labouring under a severe distemper, had, at the risk of his life,
+undertaken the embassy, but had died before he could acquit himself of the
+commission with which he was charged. The proposal met with considerable
+opposition, but it was at length agreed that a brazen statue should be
+erected to him in the Forum, and that an inscription should be placed on
+the base, importing that he had died in the service of the republic.
+
+The Philippics, hitherto mentioned, related chiefly to the affairs of
+Cisalpine Gaul, the scene of the contest between D. Brutus and Antony. A
+long period was now elapsed since the Senate had received any intelligence
+concerning the chiefs of the conspiracy, Marcus Brutus and Cassius, the
+former of whom had seized on the province of Macedonia, while the latter
+occupied Syria. Public despatches, however, at length arrived from M.
+Brutus, giving an account of his successful proceedings in Greece. The
+Consul Pansa having communicated the contents at a meeting of the Senate,
+and having proposed for him public thanks and honours, Calenus, a creature
+of Antony, objected, and moved, that as what he had done was without
+lawful authority, he should be required to deliver up his army to the
+Senate, or the proper governor of the province. Cicero, in his tenth
+Philippic, replied, in a transport of eloquent and patriotic indignation,
+to this most unjust and ruinous proposal, particularly to the assertion by
+which it was supported, that veterans would not submit to be commanded by
+Brutus. He thus succeeded in obtaining from the Senate an approbation of
+the conduct of Brutus, a continuance of his command, and pecuniary
+assistance.
+
+About the same time accounts arrived from Asia, that Dolabella, on the
+part of Antony, had taken possession of Smyrna, and there put Trebonius,
+one of the conspirators, to death. On receiving this intelligence, a
+debate arose concerning the choice of a general to be employed against
+Dolabella, and Cicero, in his eleventh Philippic, strenuously maintained
+the right of Cassius, who was then in Greece, to be promoted to that
+command. In the twelfth and thirteenth, he again warmly and successfully
+opposed the sending a deputation to Antony. All further mention of
+pacification was terminated by the joyful tidings of the total defeat of
+Antony before Modena, by the army under Octavius, and the Consuls Hirtius
+and Pansa—the latter of whom was mortally wounded in the conflict. The
+intelligence excited incredible joy at Rome, which was heightened by the
+unfavourable reports that had previously prevailed. The Senate met to
+deliberate on the despatches of the Consuls communicating the event. Never
+was there a finer opportunity for the display of eloquence, than what was
+afforded to Cicero on this occasion; of which he most gloriously availed
+himself in the fourteenth Philippic. The excitation and tumult consequent
+on a great recent victory, give wing to high flights of eloquence, and
+also prepare the minds of the audience to follow the ascent. The success
+at Modena terminated a long period of anxiety. It was for the time
+supposed to have decided the fate of Antony and the Republic; and the
+orator, who thus saw all his measures justified, must have felt the
+exultation, confidence, and spirit, so favourable to the highest exertions
+of eloquence. This, with the detestable character of the conquered
+foe,—the wounds of Pansa, who was once suspected by the Republic, but by
+his faithful zeal had gradually obtained its confidence, and at length
+sealed his fidelity with his blood,—the rewards due to the surviving
+victors,—the honours to be paid to those who had fallen in defence of
+their country,—the thanksgivings to be rendered to the immortal gods,—all
+afforded topics of triumph, panegyric, and pathos, which have been seldom
+supplied to the orator in any age or country. In extolling those who had
+fallen, Cicero dwells on two subjects; one appertaining to the glory of
+the heroes themselves, the other to the consolation of their friends and
+relatives. He proposes that a splendid monument should be erected, in
+common to all who had perished, with an inscription recording their names
+and services; and in recommending this tribute of public gratitude, he
+breaks out into a funeral panegyric, which has formed a more lasting
+memorial than the monument he suggested.
+
+This was the last Philippic and last oration which Cicero delivered. The
+union of Antony and Octavius soon after annihilated the power of the
+Senate; and Cicero, like Demosthenes, fell the victim of that indignant
+eloquence with which he had lashed the enemies of his country:—
+
+  “Eloquio sed uterque periit orator; utrumque
+  Largus et exundans letho dedit ingenii fons.
+  Ingenio manus est et cervix cæsa, nec unquam
+  Sanguine causidici maduerunt rostra pusilli(331).”
+
+Besides the complete orations above mentioned, Cicero delivered many, of
+which only fragments remain, or which are now entirely lost. All those
+which he pronounced during the five years intervening between his election
+to the Quæstorship and the Ædileship have perished, except that for M.
+Tullius, of which the exordium and narrative were brought to light at the
+late celebrated discovery by Mai, in the Ambrosian library at Milan.
+Tullius had been forcibly dispossessed (_vi armata_) by one of the Fabii
+of a farm he held in Lucania; and the whole Fabian race were prosecuted
+for damages, under a law of Lucullus, whereby, in consequence of
+depredations committed in the municipal states of Italy, every family was
+held responsible for the violent aggressions of any of its tribe. A large
+fragment of the oration for Scaurus forms by far the most valuable part of
+the discovery in the Ambrosian library. The oration, indeed, is not
+entire, but the part we have of it is tolerably well connected. The charge
+was one of provincial embezzlement, and in the exordium the orator
+announces that he was to treat, 1st, of the general nature of the
+accusation itself; 2d, of the character of the Sardinians; 3d, of that of
+Scaurus; and, lastly, of the special charge concerning the corn. Of these,
+the first two heads are tolerably entire; and that in which he exposes the
+faithless character of the Sardinians, and thus shakes the credibility of
+the witnesses for the prosecution is artfully managed. The other fragments
+discovered in the Ambrosian library consist merely of detached sentences,
+of which it is almost impossible to make a connected meaning. Of this
+description is the oration _In P. Clodium_; yet still, by the aid of the
+Commentary found along with it, we are enabled to form some notion of the
+tenor of the speech. The well-known story of Clodius finding access to the
+house of Cæsar, in female disguise, during the celebration of the
+mysteries of Bona Dea, gave occasion to this invective. A sort of
+altercation had one day passed in the Senate between Cicero and Clodius,
+soon after the acquittal of the latter for this offence, which probably
+suggested to Cicero the notion of writing a connected oration, inveighing
+against the vices and crimes of Clodius, particularly his profanation of
+the secret rites of the goddess, and the corrupt means by which he had
+obtained his acquittal. In one of his epistles to Atticus, Cicero gives a
+detailed account of this altercation, which certainly does not afford us a
+very dignified notion of senatorial gravity and decorum.
+
+Of those orations of Cicero which have entirely perished, the greatest
+loss has been sustained by the disappearance of the defence of Cornelius,
+who was accused of practices against the state during his tribuneship.
+This speech, which was divided into two great parts, was continued for
+four successive days, in presence of an immense concourse of people, who
+testified their admiration of its bright eloquence by repeated
+applause(332). The orator himself frequently refers to it as among the
+most finished of his compositions(333); and the old critics cite it as an
+example of genuine eloquence. “Not merely,” says Quintilian, “with strong,
+but with shining armour did Cicero contend in the cause of Cornelius.” We
+have also to lament the loss of the oration for C. Piso, accused of
+oppression in his government—of the farewell discourse delivered to the
+Sicilians, (_Quum Quæstor Lilybæo discederet_,) in which he gave them an
+account of his administration, and promised them his protection at Rome—of
+the invective pronounced in the Senate against Metellus, in answer to a
+harangue which that Tribune had delivered to the people concerning
+Cicero’s conduct, in putting the confederates of Catiline to death without
+trial; and, finally, of the celebrated speech _De Proscriptorum Liberis_,
+in which, on political grounds, he opposed, while admitting their justice,
+the claims of the children of those whom Sylla had proscribed and
+disqualified from holding any honours in the state, and who now applied to
+be relieved from their disabilities. The success which he obtained in
+resisting this demand, is described in strong terms by Pliny: “Te orante,
+proscriptorum liberos honores petere puduit(334).” A speech which is now
+lost, and which, though afterwards reduced to writing, must have been
+delivered extempore, afforded another strong example of the persuasiveness
+of his eloquence. The appearance of the Tribune, Roscius Otho, who had set
+apart seats for the knights at the public spectacles, having one day
+occasioned a disturbance at the theatre, Cicero, on being informed of the
+tumult, hastened to the spot, and, calling out the people to the Temple of
+Bellona, he so calmed them by the magic of his eloquence, that, returning
+immediately to the theatre, they clapped their hands in honour of Otho,
+and vied with the knights in giving him demonstrations of respect(335).
+One topic which he touched on in this oration, and the only one of which
+we have any hint from antiquity, was the rioters’ want of taste, in
+creating a tumult, while Roscius was performing on the stage(336). This
+speech, the orations against the Agrarian law, and that _De Proscriptorum
+Liberis_, have long been cited as the strongest examples of the power of
+eloquence over the passions of mankind: And it is difficult to say,
+whether the highest praise be due to the orator, who could persuade, or to
+the people, who could be thus induced to relinquish the most tempting
+expectations of property and honours, and the full enjoyment of their
+favourite amusements.
+
+In the age of that declamation which prevailed at Rome from the time of
+Tiberius to the fall of the empire, it was the practice of rhetoricians to
+declaim on similar topics with those on which Cicero had delivered, or was
+supposed to have delivered, harangues. It appears from Aulus Gellius(337),
+that in the age of Marcus Aurelius doubts were entertained with regard to
+the authenticity of certain orations circulated as productions of Cicero.
+He was known to have delivered four speeches almost immediately after his
+recall from banishment, on subjects closely connected with his exile. The
+first was addressed to the Senate(338), and the second to the people, a
+few days subsequently to his return(339); the third to the college of
+Pontiffs, in order to obtain restitution of a piece of ground on the
+Palatine hill, on which his house had formerly stood, but had been
+demolished, and a temple erected on the spot, with a view, as he feared,
+to alienate it irretrievably from the proprietor, by thus consecrating it
+to religious purposes(340). The fourth was pronounced in consequence of
+Clodius declaring that certain menacing prodigies, which had lately
+appeared, were indubitably occasioned by the desecration of this ground,
+which the Pontiffs had now discharged from religious uses. Four orations,
+supposed to have been delivered on those occasions, and entitled, _Post
+Reditum in Senatu_, _Ad Quirites post Reditum_, _Pro domo sua ad
+Pontifices_, _De Haruspicum Responsis_, were published in all the early
+editions of Cicero, without any doubts of their authenticity being hinted
+by the commentators, and were also referred to as genuine authorities by
+Middleton in his Life of Cicero. At length, about the middle of last
+century, the well-known dispute having arisen between Middleton and
+Tunstall, concerning the letters to Brutus, Markland engaged in the
+controversy; and his remarks on the correspondence of Cicero and Brutus
+were accompanied with a “Dissertation on the Four Orations ascribed to M.
+T. Cicero,” published in 1745, which threw great doubts on their
+authenticity. Middleton made no formal reply to this part of Markland’s
+observations; but he neither retracted his opinion nor changed a word in
+his subsequent edition of the Life of Cicero.
+
+Soon afterwards, Ross, the editor of Cicero’s _Epistolæ Familiares_, and
+subsequently Bishop of Exeter, ironically showed, in his “Dissertation, in
+which the defence of P. Sulla, ascribed to Cicero, is clearly proved to be
+spurious, after the manner of Mr Markland,” that, on the principles and
+line of argument adopted by his opponent, the authenticity of any one of
+the orations might be contested. This _jeu d’esprit_ of Bishop Ross was
+seriously confuted in a “Dissertation, in which the Objections of a late
+Pamphlet to the Writings of the Ancients, after the manner of Mr Markland,
+are clearly Answered; and those Passages in Tully corrected, on which some
+of the Objections are founded.—1746.” This dissertation was printed by
+Bowyer, and he is generally believed to have been the author of it(341).
+In Germany, J. M. Gesner, with all the weight attached to his opinion, and
+_Thesaurus_, strenuously defended these orations in two prelections, held
+in 1753 and 1754, and inserted in the 3d volume of the new series of the
+Transactions of the Royal Academy at Gottingen, under the title _Cicero
+Restitutus_, in which he refuted, one by one, all the objections of
+Markland.
+
+After this, although the Letters of Brutus were no longer considered as
+authentic, literary men in all countries—as De Brosses, the French
+Translator of Sallust, Ferguson, Saxius, in his _Onomasticon_, and
+Rhunkenius—adopted the orations as genuine. Ernesti, in his edition of
+Cicero, makes no mention of the existence of any doubts respecting them;
+and, in his edition of Fabricius(342), alludes to the controversy
+concerning them as a foolish and insignificant dispute. A change of
+opinion, however, was produced by an edition of the four orations which
+Wolfius published at Berlin in 1801, to which he prefixed an account of
+the controversy, and a general view of the arguments of Markland and
+Gesner. The observations of each, relating to particular words and
+phrases, are placed below the passages as they occur, and are followed by
+Wolf’s own remarks, refuting, to the utmost of his power, the opinions of
+Gesner, and confirming those of Markland. Schütz, the late German editor
+of Cicero, has completely adopted the notions of Wolf; and by printing
+these four harangues, not in their order in the series, but separately,
+and at the end of the whole, along with the discarded correspondence
+between Cicero and Brutus, has thrown them without the classical pale as
+effectually as Lambinus excluded the once recognized orations, _In pace_,
+and _Antequam iret in Exilium_. In the fourth volume of his new edition of
+the works of Cicero now proceeding in Germany, Beck has followed the
+opinion of Wolf, after an impartial examination of the different arguments
+in his notes, and in an _excursus criticus_ devoted to this subject.
+
+Markland and Wolf believe, that these harangues were written as a
+rhetorical exercise, by some declaimer, who lived not long after Cicero,
+probably in the time of Tiberius, and who had before his eyes some
+orations of Cicero now lost, (perhaps those which he delivered on his
+return from exile,) from which the rhetorician occasionally borrowed ideas
+or phrases, not altogether unworthy of the orator’s genius and eloquence.
+But, though they may contain some insulated Ciceronian expressions, it is
+utterly denied that these orations can be the continued composition of
+Cicero. The arguments against their authenticity are deduced, _first_ from
+their matter; and, _secondly_, from their style. These critics dwell much
+on the numerous thoughts and ideas inconsistent with the known sentiments,
+or unsuitable to the disposition of the author,—on the relation of events,
+told in a different manner from that in which they have been recorded by
+him in his undoubted works,—and, finally, on the gross ignorance shown of
+the laws, institutions, and customs of Rome, and even of the events
+passing at the time. Thus it is said, in one of these four orations, that,
+on some political occasion, all the senators changed their garb, as also
+the Prætors and Ædiles, which proves, that the author was ignorant that
+all Ædiles and Prætors were necessarily senators, since, otherwise, the
+special mention of them would be superfluous and absurd. What is still
+stronger, the author, in the oration _Ad Quirites post reditum_, refers to
+the speech in behalf of Gabinius, which was not pronounced till 699, three
+years subsequently to Cæsar’s recall; whereas the real oration, _Ad
+Quirites_, was delivered on the second or third day after his return. With
+regard to the style of these harangues, it is argued, that the expressions
+are affected, the sentences perplexed, and the transitions abrupt; and
+that their languor and want of animation render them wholly unworthy of
+Cicero. Markland particularly points out the absurd repetition of what the
+declaimer had considered Ciceronian phrases,—as, “Aras, focos,
+penates—Deos immortales—Res incredibiles—Esse videatur.” Of the orations
+individually he remarks, and justly, that the one delivered by Cicero in
+the Senate immediately after his return, was known to have been prepared
+with the greatest possible care, and to have been committed to writing
+before it was pronounced; while the fictitious harangue which we now have
+in its place, is at all events, quite unlike anything that Cicero would
+have produced with elaborate study. The second is a sort of compendium of
+the first, and the same ideas and expressions are slavishly repeated;
+which implies a barrenness of invention, and sterility of language, that
+cannot be supposed in Cicero. Of the third oration he speaks, in his
+letters to Atticus, as one of his happiest efforts(343); but nothing can
+be more wretched than that which we now have in its stead,—the first
+twelve chapters, indeed, being totally irrelevant to the question at
+issue.
+
+The oration for Marcellus, the genuineness of which has also been called
+in question, is somewhat in a different style from the other harangues of
+Cicero; for, though entitled _Pro Marcello_, it is not so much a speech in
+his defence, as a panegyric on Cæsar, for having granted the pardon of
+Marcellus at the intercession of the Senate. Marcellus had been one of the
+most violent opponents of the views of Cæsar. He had recommended in the
+Senate, that he should be deprived of the province of Gaul: he had
+insulted the magistrates of one of Cæsar’s new-founded colonies; and had
+been present at Pharsalia on the side of Pompey. After that battle he
+retired to Mitylene, where he was obliged to remain, being one of the few
+adversaries to whom the conqueror refused to be reconciled. The Senate,
+however, one day when Cæsar was present, with an united voice, and in an
+attitude of supplication, having implored his clemency in favour of
+Marcellus, and their request having been granted, Cicero, though he had
+resolved to preserve eternal silence, being moved by the occasion,
+delivered one of the most strained encomiums that has ever been
+pronounced.
+
+In the first part he extols the military exploits of Cæsar; but shows,
+that his clemency to Marcellus was more glorious than any of his other
+actions, as it depended entirely on himself, while fortune and his army
+had their share in the events of the war. In the second part he endeavours
+to dispel the suspicions which it appears Cæsar still entertained of the
+hostile intentions of Marcellus, and takes occasion to assure the Dictator
+that his life was most dear and valuable to all, since on it depended the
+tranquillity of the state, and the hopes of the restoration of the
+commonwealth.
+
+This oration, which Middleton declares to be superior to anything extant
+of the kind in all antiquity, and which a celebrated French critic terms,
+“Le discours le plus noble, le plus pathetique, et en meme tems le plus
+patriotique, que la reconnaissance, l’amitié, et la vertu, puissent
+inspirer à une ame elevée et sensible,” continued to be not only of
+undisputed authenticity, but one of Cicero’s most admired productions,
+till Wolf, in the preface and notes to a new edition of it, printed in
+1802, attempted to show, that it was a spurious production, totally
+unworthy of the orator whose name it bore, and that it was written by some
+declaimer, soon after the Augustan age, not as an imposition upon the
+public, but as an exercise,—according to the practice of the rhetoricians,
+who were wont to choose, as a theme, some subject on which Cicero had
+spoken. In his letters to Atticus, Cicero says, that he had returned
+thanks to Cæsar _pluribus verbis_. This Middleton translates a _long
+speech_; but Wolf alleges it can only mean a few words, and never can be
+interpreted to denote a full oration, such as that which we now possess
+for Marcellus. That Cicero did not deliver a long or formal speech, is
+evident, he contends, from the testimony of Plutarch, who mentions, in his
+life of Cicero, that, a short time afterwards, when the orator was about
+to plead for Ligarius, Cæsar asked, how it happened that he had not heard
+Cicero speak for so long a period,—which would have been absurd if he had
+heard him, a few months before, pleading for Marcellus. Being an
+extemporary effusion, called forth by an unforeseen occasion, it could not
+(he continues to urge) have been prepared and written beforehand; nor is
+it at all probable, that, like many other orations of Cicero, it was
+revised and made public after being delivered. The causes which induced
+the Roman orators to write out their speeches at leisure, were the
+magnitude and public importance of the subject, or the wishes of those in
+whose defence they were made, and who were anxious to possess a sort of
+record of their vindication. But none of these motives existed in the
+present case. The matter was of no importance or difficulty; and we know
+that Marcellus, who was a stern republican, was not at all gratified by
+the intervention of the senators, or conciliated by the clemency of Cæsar.
+As to internal evidence, deduced from the oration, Wolf admits, that there
+are interspersed in it some Ciceronian sentences; and how otherwise could
+the learned have been so egregiously deceived? but the resemblance is more
+in the varnish of the style than in the substance. We have the words
+rather than the thoughts of Cicero; and the rounding of his periods,
+without their energy and argumentative connection. He adduces, also, many
+instances of phrases unusual among the classics, and of conceits which
+betray the rhetorician or sophist. His extolling the act of that day on
+which Cæsar pardoned Marcellus as higher than all his warlike exploits,
+would but have raised a smile on the lips of the Dictator; and the
+slighting way in which the cause of the republic and Pompey are mentioned,
+is totally different from the manner in which Cicero expressed himself on
+these delicate topics, even in presence of Cæsar, in his authentic
+orations for Deiotarus and Ligarius.
+
+It is evident, at first view, that many of Wolf’s observations are
+hypercritical; and that in his argument concerning the encomiums on Cæsar,
+and the overrated importance of his clemency to Marcellus, he does not
+make sufficient allowance for Cicero’s habit of exaggeration, and the
+momentary enthusiasm produced by one of those transactions,
+
+  —— “Quæ, dum geruntur,
+  Percellunt animos.” ——
+
+Accordingly, in the year following that of Wolf’s edition, Olaus Wormius
+published, at Copenhagen, a vindication of the authenticity of this
+speech. To the argument adduced from Plutarch, he answers, that some
+months had elapsed between the orations for Marcellus and Ligarius, which
+might readily be called a long period, by one accustomed to hear Cicero
+harangue almost daily in the Senate or Forum. Besides, the phrase of
+Plutarch, λεγοντος may mean pleading for some one, which was not the
+nature of the speech for Marcellus. As to the motive which led to write
+and publish the oration, Cicero, above all men, was delighted with his own
+productions, and nothing can be more probable than that he should have
+wished to preserve the remembrance of that memorable day, which he calls
+in his letters, _diem illam pulcherrimam_. It was natural to send the
+oration to Marcellus, in order to hasten his return to Rome, and it must
+have been an acceptable thing to Cæsar, thus to record his fearlessness
+and benignity. With regard to the manner in which Pompey and the
+republican party are talked of, it is evident, from his letters, that
+Cicero was disgusted with the political measures of that faction, that he
+wholly disapproved of their plan of the campaign, and foreseeing a renewal
+of Sylla’s proscriptions in the triumph of the aristocratic power, he did
+not exaggerate in so highly extolling the humanity of Cæsar.
+
+The arguments of Wormius were expanded and illustrated by Weiske, _In
+Commentario perpetuo et pleno in Orat. Ciceronis pro Marcello_, published
+at Leipsic, in 1805(344), while, on the other hand, Spalding, in his _De
+Oratione pro Marcello Disputatio_, published in 1808, supported the
+opinions of Wolfius.
+
+The controversy was in this state, and was considered as involved in much
+doubt and obscurity, when Aug. Jacob, in an academical exercise, printed
+at Halle and Berlin, in 1813, and entitled _De Oratione quæ inscribitur
+pro Marcello, Ciceroni vel abjudicata vel adjudicata, Quæstio novaque
+conjectura_, adopted a middle course. Finding such dissimilarity in the
+different passages of the oration, some being most powerful, elegant, and
+beautiful, while others were totally futile and frigid, he was led to
+believe that part had actually flowed from the lips of Cicero, but that
+much had been subsequently interpolated by some rhetorician or declaimer.
+He divides his whole treatise into four heads, which comprehend all the
+various points agitated on the subject of this oration: 1. The testimony
+of different authors tending to prove the authenticity or spuriousness of
+the production: 2. The history of the period, with which every genuine
+oration must necessarily concur: 3. The genius and manner of Cicero, from
+which no one of his orations could be entirely remote: 4. The style and
+phraseology, which must be correct and classical. In the prosecution of
+his inquiry in these different aspects of the subject, the author
+successively reviews the opinions and judgments of his predecessors,
+sometimes agreeing with Wolf and his followers, at other times, and more
+frequently, with their opposers. He thinks that the much-contested phrase
+_pluribus verbis_, may mean a long oration, as Cicero elsewhere talks of
+having pleaded for Cluentius, _pluribus verbis_, though the speech in his
+defence consists of 58 chapters. Besides, Cicero only says that he had
+_returned thanks_ to Cæsar, _pluribus verbis_. Now, the whole speech does
+not consist of thanks to Cæsar, being partly occupied in removing the
+suspicions which he entertained of Marcellus. With regard to encomiums on
+Cæsar, which Spalding has characterized as abject and fulsome, and totally
+different from the delicate compliments addressed to him in the oration
+for Deiotarus or Ligarius, Jacob reminds his readers that the harangues
+could have no resemblance to each other, the latter being pleadings in
+behalf of the accused, and the former a professed panegyric. Nor can any
+one esteem the eulogies on Cæsar too extravagant for Cicero, when he
+remembers the terms in which the orator had formerly spoken of Roscius,
+Archias, and Pompey.
+
+Schütz, the late German editor of Cicero, has subscribed to the opinion of
+Wolf, and has published the speech for Marcellus, along with the other
+four doubtful harangues at the end of the genuine orations.
+
+But supposing that these five contested speeches are spurious, a
+sufficient number of genuine orations remain to enable us to distinguish
+the character of Cicero’s eloquence. Ambitious from his youth of the
+honours attending a fine speaker, he early travelled to Greece, where he
+accumulated all the stores of knowledge and rules of art, which could be
+gathered from the rhetoricians, historians, and philosophers, of that
+intellectual land. While he thus extracted and imbibed the copiousness of
+Plato, the sweetness of Isocrates, and force of Demosthenes, he, at the
+same time, imbued his mind with a thorough knowledge of the laws,
+constitution, antiquities, and literature, of his native country. Nor did
+he less study the peculiar temper, the jealousies, and enmities of the
+Roman people, both as a nation and as individuals, without a knowledge of
+which, his eloquence would have been unavailing in the Forum or Comitia,
+where so much was decided by favouritism and cabal. By these means he
+ruled the passions and deliberations of his countrymen with almost
+resistless sway—upheld the power of the Senate—stayed the progress of
+tyranny—drove the audacious Catiline from Rome—directed the feelings of
+the state in favour of Pompey—shook the strong mind of Cæsar—and kindled a
+flame by which Antony had been nearly consumed. But the main secret of his
+success lay in the warmth and intensity of his feelings. His heart swelled
+with patriotism, and was dilated with the most magnificent conceptions of
+the glory of Rome. Though it throbbed with the fondest anticipations of
+posthumous fame, the momentary acclaim of a multitude was a chord to which
+it daily and most readily vibrated; while, at the same time, his high
+conceptions of oratory counteracted the bad effect which this exuberant
+vanity might otherwise have produced. Thus, when two speakers were
+employed in the same cause, though Cicero was the junior, to him was
+assigned the peroration, in which he surpassed all his contemporaries; and
+he obtained this pre-eminence not so much on account of his superior
+genius or knowledge of law, as because he was more moved and affected
+himself, without which he would never have moved or affected his judges.
+
+With such natural endowments, and such acquirements, he early took his
+place as the refuge and support of his fellow-citizens in the Forum, as
+the arbiter of the deliberations of the Senate, and as the most powerful
+defender from the Rostrum of the political interests of the commonwealth.
+
+Cicero and Demosthenes have been frequently compared. Suidas says, that
+one Cicilus, a native of Sicily, whose works are now lost, was the first
+to institute the parallel, and they have been subsequently compared, in
+due form, by Plutarch and Quintilian, and, (as far as relates to
+sublimity,) by Longinus, among the ancients; and among the moderns, by
+Herder, in his _Philosophical History of Man_, and by Jenisch, in a German
+work devoted to the subject(345). Rapin, and all other French critics,
+with the exception of Fenelon, give the preference to Cicero.
+
+From what has already been said, it is sufficiently evident that Cicero
+had not to contend with any of those obstructions from nature which
+Demosthenes encountered; and his youth, in place of being spent like that
+of the Greek orator, in remedying and supplying defects, was unceasingly
+employed in pursuit of the improvements auxiliary to his art. But if
+Cicero derived superior advantages from nature, Demosthenes possessed
+other advantages, in the more advanced progress of his country in
+refinement and letters, at the era in which he appeared. Greek literature
+had reached its full perfection before the birth of Demosthenes, but
+Cicero was, in a great measure, himself the creator of the literature of
+Rome, and no prose writer of eminence had yet existed, after whom he could
+model his phraseology. In other external circumstances, they were placed
+in situations not very dissimilar. But Cicero had a wider, and perhaps
+more beautiful field, in which to expatiate and to exercise his powers.
+The wide extent of the Roman empire, the striking vices and virtues of its
+citizens, the memorable events of its history, supplied an endless variety
+of great and interesting topics; whereas many of the orations of
+Demosthenes are on subjects unworthy of his talents. Their genius and
+capacity were in many respects the same. Their eloquence was of that great
+and comprehensive kind, which dignifies every subject, and gives it all
+the force and beauty it is capable of receiving. “I judge Cicero and
+Demosthenes,” says Quintilian, “to be alike in most of the great qualities
+they possessed. They were alike in design, in the manner of dividing their
+subject, and preparing the minds of the audience; in short, in every thing
+belonging to invention.” But while there was much similarity in their
+talents, there was a wide difference in their tempers and characters.
+Demosthenes was of an austere, harsh, melancholy disposition, obstinate
+and resolute in all his undertakings: Cicero was of a lively, flexible,
+and wavering humour. This seems the chief cause of the difference in their
+eloquence; but the contrasts are too obvious, and have been too often
+exhibited to be here displayed. No person wishes to be told, for the
+twentieth time, that Demosthenes assumes a higher tone, and is more
+serious, vehement, and impressive, than Cicero; while Cicero is more
+insinuating, graceful, and affecting: That the Greek orator struck on the
+soul by the force of his argument, and ardour of his expressions; while
+the Roman made his way to the heart, alternately moving and allaying the
+passions of his hearers, by all the arts of rhetoric, and by conforming to
+their opinions and prejudices.
+
+
+
+Cicero was not only a great orator, but has also left the fullest
+instructions and the most complete historical details on the art which he
+so gloriously practised. His precepts are contained in the dialogue _De
+Oratore_ and the _Orator_; while the history of Roman eloquence is
+comprehended in the dialogue entitled, _Brutus, sive De Claris
+Oratoribus_.
+
+In his youth, Cicero had written and published some undigested
+observations on the subject of eloquence; but considering these as
+unworthy of the character and experience he afterwards acquired, he
+applied himself to write a treatise on the art which might be more
+commensurate to his matured talents. He himself mentions several Sicilians
+and Greeks, who had written on oratory(346). But the models he chiefly
+followed, were Aristotle, in his books of rhetoric(347); and Isocrates,
+the whole of whose theories and precepts he has comprehended in his
+rhetorical works. He has thrown his ideas on the subject into the form of
+dialogue or conference, a species of composition, which, however much
+employed by the Greeks, had not hitherto been attempted at Rome. This mode
+of writing presented many advantages: By adopting it he avoided that
+dogmatical air, which a treatise from him on such a subject would
+necessarily have worn, and was enabled to instruct without dictating
+rules. Dialogue, too, relieved monotony of style, by affording opportunity
+of varying it according to the characters of the different speakers—it
+tempered the austerity of precept by the cheerfulness of conversation, and
+developed each opinion with the vivacity and fulness naturally employed in
+the oral discussion of a favourite topic. Add to this, the facility which
+it presented of paying an acceptable compliment to the friends who were
+introduced as interlocutors, and its susceptibility of agreeable
+description of the scenes in which the persons of the dialogue were
+placed—a species of embellishment, for which ample scope was afforded by
+the numerous villas of Cicero, situated in the most beautiful spots of
+Italy, and in every variety of landscape, from the Alban heights to the
+shady banks of the Liris, or glittering shore of Baiæ. As a method of
+communicating knowledge, however, (except in discussions which are
+extremely simple, and susceptible of much delineation of character,) the
+mode of dialogue is, in many respects, extremely inconvenient. “By the
+interruptions which are given,” says the author of the life of Tasso, in
+his remarks on the dialogues of that poet,—“By the interruptions which are
+given, if a dialogue be at all dramatic—by the preparations and
+transitions, order and precision must, in a great degree, be sacrificed.
+In reasoning, as much brevity must be used as is consistent with
+perspicuity; but in dialogue, so much verbiage must be employed, that the
+scope of the argument is generally lost. The replies, too, to the
+objections of the opponent, seem rather arguments _ad hominem_, than
+possessed of the value of abstract truth; so that the reader is perplexed
+and bewildered, and concludes the inquiry, beholding one of the characters
+puzzled, indeed, and perhaps subdued, but not at all satisfied that the
+battle might not have been better fought, and more victorious arguments
+adduced.”
+
+The dialogue _De Oratore_ was written in the year 698, when Cicero,
+disgusted with the political dissensions of the capital, had retired,
+during part of the summer, to the country: But, according to the
+supposition of the piece, the dialogue occurred in 662. The author
+addresses it to his brother in a dedication, strongly expressive of his
+fondness for study; and, after some general observations on the difficulty
+of the oratoric art, and the numerous accomplishments requisite to form a
+complete orator, he introduces his dialogue, or rather the three
+dialogues, of which the performance consists. Dialogue writing may be
+executed either as direct conversation, in which none but the speakers
+appear, and where, as in the scenes of a play, no information is afforded
+except from what the persons of the drama say to each other; or as the
+recital of the conversation, where the author himself appears, and after a
+preliminary detail concerning the persons of the dialogue, and the
+circumstances of time and place in which it was held, proceeds to give an
+account of what passed in the discourse at which he had himself been
+present, or the import of which was communicated to him by some one who
+had attended and borne his part in the conference. It is this latter
+method that has been followed by Cicero, in his dialogues _De Oratore_. He
+mentions in his own person, that during the celebration of certain
+festivals at Rome, the orator Crassus retired to his villa at Tusculum,
+one of the most delightful retreats in Italy, whither he was accompanied
+by Antony, his most intimate friend in private life, but most formidable
+rival in the Forum; and by his father-in-law, Scævola, who was the
+greatest jurisconsult of his age, and whose house in the city was resorted
+to as an oracle, by men of the highest rank and dignity. Crassus was also
+attended by Cotta and Sulpicius, at that time the two most promising
+orators of Rome, the former of whom afterwards related to Cicero (for the
+author is not supposed to be personally present) the conversation which
+passed among these distinguished men, as they reclined on the benches
+under a planetree, that grew on one of the walks surrounding the villa. It
+is not improbable, that some such conversation may have been actually
+held, and that Cicero, notwithstanding his age, and the authority derived
+from his rhetorical reputation, may have chosen to avail himself of the
+circumstance, in order to shelter his opinions under those of two ancient
+masters, who, previously to his own time, were regarded as the chief
+organs of Roman eloquence.
+
+Crassus, in order to dissipate the gloom which had been occasioned by a
+serious and even melancholy conversation, on the situation of public
+affairs, turned the discourse on oratory. The sentiments which he
+expresses on this subject are supposed to be those which Cicero himself
+entertained. In order to excite the two young men, Cotta and Sulpicius, to
+prosecute with ardour the career they had so successfully commenced, he
+first enlarges on the utility and excellence of oratory; and then,
+proceeding to the object which he had principally in view, he contends
+that an almost universal knowledge is essentially requisite to perfection
+in this noble art. He afterwards enumerates those branches of knowledge
+which the orator should acquire, and the purposes to which he should apply
+them: he inculcates the necessity of an acquaintance with the antiquities,
+manners, and constitution of the republic—the constant exercise of written
+composition—the study of gesture at the theatre—the translation of the
+Greek orators—reading and commenting on the philosophers, reading and
+criticizing the poets. The question hence arises, whether a knowledge of
+the civil law be serviceable to the orator? Crassus attempts to prove its
+utility from various examples of cases, where its principles required to
+be elucidated; as also from the intrinsic nobleness of the study itself,
+and the superior excellence of the Roman law to all other systems of
+jurisprudence. Antony, who was a mere practical pleader, considered
+philosophy and civil law as useless to the orator, being foreign to the
+real business of life. He conceived that eloquence might subsist without
+them, and that with regard to the other accomplishments enumerated by
+Crassus, they were totally distinct from the proper office and duty of a
+public speaker. It is accordingly agreed, that on the following day Antony
+should state his notions of the acquirements appropriate to an orator.
+Previous to the commencement of the second conversation, the party is
+joined by Catulus and Julius Cæsar, (grand-uncle to the Dictator,) two of
+the most eminent orators of the time, the former being distinguished by
+his elegance and purity of diction, the latter by his turn for pleasantry.
+Having met Scævola, on his way from Tusculum to the villa of Lælius, and
+having heard from him of the interesting conversation which had been held,
+the remainder of which had been deferred till the morrow, they came over
+from a neighbouring villa to partake of the instruction and entertainment.
+In their presence, and in that of Crassus, Antony maintains his favourite
+system, that eloquence is not an art, because it depends not on knowledge.
+Imitation of good models, practice, and minute attention to each
+particular case, which should be scrupulously examined in all its
+bearings, are laid down by him as the foundations of forensic eloquence.
+The great objects of an orator being, in the first place, to recommend
+himself to his clients, and then to prepossess the audience and judges in
+their favour, Antony enlarges on the practice of the bar, in conciliating,
+informing, moving, and undeceiving those on whom the decision of causes
+depends; all which is copiously illustrated by examples drawn from
+particular questions, which had occurred at Rome in cases of proof, strict
+law, or equity. The chief weight and importance is attributed to moving
+the springs of the passions. Among the methods of conciliation and
+prepossession, humour and drollery are particularly mentioned. Cæsar being
+the oratorical wit of the party, is requested to give some examples of
+forensic jests. Those he affords are for the most part wretched quibbles,
+or personal reflections on the opposite parties, and their witnesses. The
+length of the dissertation, however, on this topic, shows the important
+share it was considered as occupying among the qualifications of the
+ancient orator.
+
+Antony having thus explained the mechanical part of the orator’s duty, it
+is agreed, that in the afternoon Crassus should enter on the
+embellishments of rhetoric. In the execution of the task assigned him, he
+treats of all that relates to what may be called the ornamental part of
+oratory—pronunciation, elocution, harmony of periods, metaphors,
+sentiments, action, (which he terms the predominant power in eloquence,)
+expression of countenance, modulation of voice, and all those properties
+which impart a finished grace and dignity to a public discourse.
+
+Cicero himself highly approved of this treatise on Oratory, and his
+friends regarded it as one of his best productions. The style of the
+dialogue is copious, without being redundant, as is sometimes the case in
+the orations. It is admirable for the diversity of character in the
+speakers, the general conduct of the piece, and the variety of matter it
+contains. It comprehends, I believe, everything valuable in the Greek
+works on rhetoric, and also many excellent observations, suggested by the
+author’s long experience, acquired in the numerous causes, both public and
+private, which he conducted in the Forum, and the important discussions in
+which he swayed the counsels of the Senate. As a composition, however, I
+cannot consider the dialogue _De Oratore_ altogether faultless. It is too
+little dramatic for a dialogue, and occasionally it expands into continued
+dissertation; while, at the same time, by adopting the form of dialogue, a
+rambling and desultory effect is produced in the discussion of a subject,
+where, of all others, method and close connection were most desirable.
+There is also frequently an assumed liveliness of manner, which seems
+forced and affected in these grave and consular orators.
+
+The dialogue entitled _Brutus, sive De Claris Oratoribus_, was written,
+and is also feigned to have taken place, after Cæsar had attained to
+sovereign power, though he was still engaged in the war against Scipio in
+Africa. The conference is supposed to be held among Cicero, Atticus, and
+Brutus, (from whom it has received its name,) near a statue of Plato,
+which stood in the pleasure-grounds of Cicero’s mansion, at Rome.
+
+Brutus having experienced the clemency of the conqueror, whom he
+afterwards sacrificed, left Italy, in order to amuse himself with an
+agreeable tour through the cities of Greece and Asia. In a few months he
+returned to Rome, resigned himself to the calm studies of history and
+rhetoric, and passed many of his leisure hours in the society of Cicero
+and Atticus. The first part of the dialogue, among these three friends,
+contains a few slight, but masterly sketches, of the most celebrated
+speakers who had flourished in Greece; but these are not so much mentioned
+with an historical design, as to support by examples the author’s
+favourite proposition, that perfection in oratory requires proficiency in
+all the arts. The dialogue is chiefly occupied with details concerning
+Roman orators, from the earliest ages to Cicero’s own time. He first
+mentions such speakers as Appius Claudius and Fabricius, of whom he knew
+nothing certain, whose harangues had never been committed to writing, or
+were no longer extant, and concerning whose powers of eloquence he could
+only derive conjectures, from the effects which they produced on the
+people and Senate, as recorded in the ancient annals. The second class of
+orators are those, like Cato the Censor, and the Gracchi, whose speeches
+still survived, or of whom he could speak traditionally, from the report
+of persons still living who had heard them. A great deal of what is said
+concerning this set of orators, rests on the authority of Hortensius, from
+whom Cicero derived his information(348). The third class are the deceased
+contemporaries of the author, whom he had himself seen and heard; and he
+only departs from his rule of mentioning no living orator at the special
+request of Brutus, who expresses an anxiety to learn his opinion of the
+merits of Marcellus and Julius Cæsar. Towards the conclusion, he gives
+some account of his own rise and progress, of the education he had
+received, and the various methods which he had practised in order to reach
+those heights of eloquence he had attained.
+
+This work is certainly of the greatest service to the history of Roman
+eloquence; and it likewise throws considerable light on the civil
+transactions of the republic, as the author generally touches on the
+principal incidents in the lives of those eminent orators whom he
+mentions. It also gives additional weight and authority to the oratorical
+precepts contained in his other works, since it shows, that they were
+founded, not on any speculative theories, but on a minute observation of
+the actual faults and excellencies of the most renowned speakers of his
+age. Yet, with all these advantages, it is not so entertaining as might be
+expected. The author mentions too many orators, and says too little of
+each, which gives his treatise the appearance rather of a dry catalogue,
+than of a literary essay, or agreeable dialogue. He acknowledges, indeed,
+in the course of it, that he had inserted in his list of orators many who
+possessed little claim to that appellation, since he designed to give an
+account of all the Romans, without exception, who had made it their study
+to excel in the arts of eloquence.
+
+The _Orator_, addressed to Brutus, and written at his solicitation, was
+intended to complete the subjects examined in the dialogues, _De Oratore_,
+and _De Claris Oratoribus_. It contains the description of what Cicero
+conceived necessary to form a perfect orator,—a character which, indeed,
+nowhere existed, but of which he had formed the idea in his own
+imagination. He admits, that Attic eloquence approached the nearest to
+perfection; he pauses, however, to correct a prevailing error, that the
+only genuine Atticism is a correct, plain, and slender discourse,
+distinguished by purity of style, and delicacy of taste, but void of all
+ornaments and redundance. In the time of Cicero, there was a class of
+orators, including several men of parts and learning, and of the first
+quality, who, while they acknowledged the superiority of his genius, yet
+censured his diction as not truely Attic, some calling it loose and
+languid, others tumid and exuberant. These speakers affected a minute and
+fastidious correctness, pointed sentences, short and concise periods,
+without a syllable to spare in them—as if the perfection of oratory
+consisted in frugality of words, and the crowding of sentiments into the
+narrowest possible compass. The chief patrons of this taste were Brutus
+and Licinius Calvus. Cicero, while he admitted that correctness was
+essential to eloquence, contended, that a nervous, copious, animated, and
+even ornate style, may be truely Attic; since, otherwise, Lysias would be
+the only Attic orator, to the exclusion of Isocrates, and even Demosthenes
+himself. He accordingly opposed the system of these ultra-Attic orators,
+whom he represents as often deserted in the midst of their harangues; for
+although their style of rhetoric might please the ear of a critic, it was
+not of that sublime, pathetic, or sonorous species, of which the end was
+not only to instruct, but to move an audience,—whose excitement and
+admiration form the true criterions of eloquence.
+
+The remainder of the treatise is occupied with the three things to be
+attended to by an orator,—what he is to say, in what order his topics are
+to be arranged, and how they are to be expressed. In discussing the last
+point, the author enters very fully into the collocation of words, and
+that measured cadence, which, to a certain extent, prevails even in
+prose;—a subject on which Brutus wished particularly to be instructed, and
+which he accordingly treats in detail.
+
+This tract is rather confusedly arranged; and the dissertation on prosaic
+harmony, though curious, appears to us somewhat too minute in its object
+for the attention of an orator. Cicero, however, set a high value on this
+production; and, in a letter to Lepta, he declares, that whatever judgment
+he possessed on the subject of oratory, he had thrown it all into that
+work, and was ready to stake his reputation on its merits(349).
+
+The _Topica_ may also be considered as another work on the subject of
+rhetoric. Aristotle, as is well known, wrote a book with this title. The
+lawyer, Caius Trebatius, a friend of Cicero, being curious to know the
+contents and import of the Greek work, which he had accidentally seen in
+Cicero’s Tusculan library, but being deterred from its study by the
+obscurity of the writer, (though it certainly is not one of the most
+difficult of Aristotle’s productions,) requested Cicero to draw up this
+extract, or commentary, in order to explain the various _topics_, or
+common-places, which are the foundation of rhetorical argument. Of this
+request Cicero was some time afterwards reminded by the view of Velia,
+(the marine villa of Trebatius,) during a coasting voyage which he
+undertook, with the intention of retiring to Greece, in consequence of the
+troubles which followed the death of Cæsar. Though he had neither
+Aristotle nor any other book at hand to assist him, he drew it up from
+memory as he sailed along, and finished it before he arrived at Rhegium,
+whence he sent it to Trebatius(350).
+
+This treatise shows, that Cicero had most diligently studied Aristotle’s
+_Topics_. It is not, however, a translation, but an extract or explanation
+of that work; and, as it was addressed to a lawyer, he has taken his
+examples chiefly from the civil law of the Romans, which he conceived
+Trebatius would understand better than illustrations drawn, like those of
+Aristotle, from the philosophy of the Greeks.
+
+It is impossible sufficiently to admire Cicero’s industry and love of
+letters, which neither the inconveniences of a sea voyage, which he always
+disliked, nor the harassing thoughts of leaving Italy at such a
+conjuncture, could divert from the calm and regular pursuit of his
+favourite studies.
+
+The work _De Partitione Rhetorica_, is written in the form of a dialogue
+between Cicero and his son; the former replying to the questions of the
+latter concerning the principles and doctrine of eloquence. The tract now
+entitled _De Optimo genere Oratorum_, was originally intended as a preface
+to a translation which Cicero had made from the orations of Æschines and
+Demosthenes in the case of Ctesipho, in which an absurd and trifling
+matter of ceremony has become the basis of an immortal controversy. In
+this preface he reverts to the topic on which he had touched in the
+_Orator_—the mistake which prevailed in Rome, that Attic eloquence was
+limited to that accurate, dry, and subtle manner of expression, adopted in
+the orations of Lysias. It was to correct this error, that Cicero
+undertook a free translation of the two master-pieces of Athenian
+eloquence; the one being an example of vehement and energetic, the other
+of pathetic and ornamental oratory. It is probable that Cicero was
+prompted to these repeated inquiries concerning the genuine character of
+Attic eloquence, from the reproach frequently cast on his own discourses
+by Brutus, Calvus, and other sterile, but, as they supposed themselves,
+truely Attic orators, that his harangues were not in the Greek, but rather
+in the Asiatic taste,—that is, nerveless, florid, and redundant.
+
+It appears, that in Rome, as well as in Greece, oratory was generally
+considered as divided into three different styles—the Attic, Asiatic, and
+Rhodian. Quintilian, at least, so classes the various sorts of oratory in
+a passage, in which he also shortly characterizes them by those attributes
+from which they were chiefly distinguishable. “Mihi autem,” says he,
+“orationis differentiam fecisse et dicentium et audientium naturæ
+videntur, quod _Attici_ limati quidem et emuncti nihil inane aut redundans
+ferebant. _Asiana_ gens, tumidior alioquin et jactantior, vaniore etiam
+dicendi gloria inflata est. Tertium mox qui hæc dividebant adjecerunt
+genus _Rhodium_, quod velut medium esse, atque ex utroque mixtum
+volunt(351).” Brutus and Licinius Calvus, as we have seen, affected the
+slender, polished, and somewhat barren conciseness of Attic eloquence. The
+speeches of Hortensius, and a few of Cicero’s earlier harangues, as that
+for Sextus Roscius, afforded examples of the copious, florid, and
+sometimes tumid style of Asiatic oratory. The latter orations of Cicero,
+refined by his study and experience, were, I presume, nearly in the
+Rhodian taste. That celebrated school of eloquence had been founded by
+Æschines, the rival of Demosthenes, when, being banished from his native
+city by the influence of his competitor, he had retired to the island of
+Rhodes. Inferior to Demosthenes in power of argument and force of
+expression, he surpassed him in copiousness and ornament. The school which
+he founded, and which subsisted for centuries after his death, admitted
+not the luxuries of Asiatic diction; and although the most ornamental of
+Greece, continued ever true to the principles of its great Athenian
+master. A chief part of the two years during which Cicero travelled in
+Greece and Asia was spent at Rhodes, and his principal teacher of
+eloquence at Rome was Molo the Rhodian, from whom he likewise afterwards
+received lessons at Rhodes. The great difficulty which that rhetorician
+encountered in the instruction of his promising disciple, was, as Cicero
+himself informs us, the effort of containing within its due and proper
+channel the overflowings of a youthful imagination(352). Cicero’s natural
+fecundity, and the bent of his own inclination, preserved him from the
+risk of dwindling into ultra-Attic slenderness; but it is not improbable,
+that from the example of Hortensius and his own copiousness, he might have
+swelled out to Asiatic pomp, had not his exuberance been early reduced by
+the seasonable and salutary discipline of the Rhodian.
+
+Cicero, in his youth, also wrote the _Rhetorica, seu de Inventione
+Rhetorica_, of which there are still extant two books, treating of the
+part of rhetoric that relates to invention. This is the work mentioned by
+Cicero, in the commencement of the treatise _De Oratore_, as having been
+published by him in his youth. It is generally believed to have been
+written in 666, when Cicero was only twenty years of age, and to have
+originally contained four books. Schütz, however, the German editor of
+Cicero, is of opinion, that he never wrote, or at least, never published,
+more than the two books we still possess.
+
+A number of sentences in these two books of the _Rhetorica, seu de
+Inventione_, coincide with passages in the _Rhetoricum ad Herennium_,
+which is usually published along with the works of Cicero, but is not of
+his composition. Purgold thinks that the _Rhetor. ad Herennium_ was
+published first, and that Cicero copied from it those corresponding
+passages(353). It appears, however, a little singular, that Cicero should
+have borrowed so largely, and without acknowledgment, from a recent
+publication of one of his contemporaries. To account for this difficulty
+some critics have supposed, that the anonymous author of the _Rhetor. ad
+Herennium_ was a rhetorician, whose lectures Cicero had attended, and had
+inserted in his own work notes taken by him from these prelections, before
+they were edited by their author(354). Some, again, have imagined, that
+Cicero and the anonymous author were fellow-students under the same
+rhetorician, and that both had thus adopted his ideas and expressions;
+while others believe, that both copied from a common Greek original. But
+then, in opposition to this last theory, it has been remarked, that the
+Latin words employed by both are frequently the same; and there are the
+same references to the history of Rome, and of its ancient native poets,
+with which no Greek writer can be supposed to have had much acquaintance.
+
+Who the anonymous author of the _Rhetor. ad Herennium_ actually was, has
+been the subject of much learned controversy, and the point remains still
+undetermined. Priscian repeatedly cites it as the work of Cicero; whence
+it was believed to be the production of Cicero by Laurentius Valla, George
+of Trebizond, Politian, and other great restorers of learning in the
+fifteenth century; and this opinion was from time to time, though feebly,
+revived by less considerable writers in succeeding periods. It seems now,
+however, entirely abandoned; but, while all critics and commentators agree
+in _abjudicating_ the work from Cicero, they differ widely as to the
+person to whom the production should be assigned. Aldus Manutius,
+Sigonius, Muretus, and Riccobonus, were of opinion, that it was written by
+Q. Cornificius the elder, who was Cæsar’s Quæstor during the civil war,
+and subsequently his lieutenant in Africa, of which province, after the
+Dictator’s death, he kept possession for the republican party, till he was
+slain in an engagement with one of the generals of Octavius. The judgment
+of these scholars is chiefly founded on some passages in Quintilian, who
+attributes to Cornificius several critical and philological definitions
+which coincide with those introduced in the _Rhetorica ad Herennium_.
+Gerard Vossius, however, has adopted an opinion, that if at all written by
+a person of that name, it must have been by the younger Cornificius(355),
+who was born in 662, and, having followed the party of Octavius, was
+appointed Consul by favour of the Triumvirate in 718. Raphael Regius also
+seems inclined to attribute the work to Cornificius the son(356). But if
+the style be considered too remote from that of the age of Cicero, to be
+ascribed to any of his contemporaries, he conceives it may be plausibly
+conjectured to have been the production of Timolaus, one of the thirty
+tyrants in the reign of Gallienus. Timolaus had a brother called
+Herenianus, to whom his work may have been dedicated, and he thinks that
+_Timolaus ad Herenianum_ may have been corrupted into _Tullius ad
+Herennium_. J. C. Scaliger attributes the work to Gallio, a rhetorician in
+the time of Nero(357)—an opinion which obtained currency in consequence of
+the discovery of a MS. copy of the _Rhetorica ad Herennium_, with the name
+of Gallio prefixed to it(358).
+
+Sufficient scope being thus left for new conjectures, Schütz, the German
+editor of Cicero, has formed a new hypothesis on the subject. Cicero’s
+tract _De Inventione_ having been written in his early youth, the period
+of its composition may be placed about 672. From various circumstances,
+which he discusses at great length, Schütz concludes that the _Rhetorica
+ad Herennium_ was the work which was first written, and consequently
+previous to 672. Farther, the _Rhetorica ad Herennium_ must have been
+written subsequently to 665, as it mentions the death of Sulpicius, which
+happened in that year. The time thus limited corresponds very exactly with
+the age of M. Ant. Gnipho, who was born in the year 640; and him Schütz
+considers as the real author of the _Rhetorica ad Herennium_. This he
+attempts to prove, by showing, that many things which Suetonius relates of
+Gnipho, in his work _De Claris Rhetoribus_, agree with what the author of
+the _Rhetorica ad Herennium_ delivers concerning himself in the course of
+that production. It is pretty well established, that both Gnipho and the
+anonymous author of the _Rhetorica ad Herennium_ were free-born, had good
+memories, understood Greek, and were voluminous authors. It is
+unfortunate, however, that these characteristics, except the first, were
+probably common to almost all rhetoricians; and Schütz does not allude to
+any of the more particular circumstances mentioned by Suetonius, as that
+Gnipho was a Gaul by birth, that he studied at Alexandria, and that he
+taught rhetoric in the house of the father of Julius Cæsar.
+
+
+
+Cicero, who was unquestionably the first orator, was as decidedly the most
+learned philosopher of Rome; and while he eclipsed all his contemporaries
+in eloquence, he acquired, towards the close of his life, no small share
+of reputation as a writer on ethics and metaphysics. His wisdom, however,
+was founded entirely on that of the Greeks, and his philosophic writings
+were chiefly occupied with the discussion of questions which had been
+agitated in the Athenian schools, and from them had been transmitted to
+Italy. The disquisition respecting the certainty or uncertainty of human
+knowledge, with that concerning the supreme good and evil, were the
+inquiries which he chiefly pursued; and the notions which he entertained
+of these subjects, were all derived from the Portico, Academy, or Lyceum.
+
+The leading principles of the chief philosophic sects of Greece flowed
+originally from Socrates—
+
+  —— “From whose mouth issued forth
+  Mellifluous streams, that watered all the schools
+  Of Academics, Old and New(359);”
+
+and who has been termed by Cicero(360) the perennial source of philosophy,
+much more justly than Homer has been styled the fountain of all poetry.
+Though somewhat addicted to them from education and early habit, Socrates
+withdrew philosophy from those obscure and intricate physical inquiries,
+in which she had been involved by the founders and followers of the Ionic
+school, and from the subtle paradoxical hypotheses of the sophists who
+established themselves at Athens in the time of Pericles. It being his
+chief aim to improve the condition of mankind, and to incline them to
+discharge the several duties of the stations in which they had been
+placed, this moral teacher directed his examinations to the nature of vice
+and virtue, of good and evil. To accomplish the great object he had in
+view, his practice was to hazard no opinion of his own, but to refute
+prevalent errors and prejudices, by involving the pretenders to knowledge
+in manifest absurdity, while he himself, as if in contrast to the
+presumption of the sophists, always professed that he knew nothing. This
+confession of ignorance, which amounted to no more than a general
+acknowledgment of the imbecility of the human understanding, and was
+merely designed to convince his followers of the futility of those
+speculations which do not rest on the firm basis of experience, or to
+teach them modesty in their inquiries, and diffidence in their assertions,
+having been interpreted in a different sense from that in which it was
+originally intended, gave rise to the celebrated dispute concerning the
+certainty of knowledge.
+
+The various founders of the philosophic sects of Greece, imbibed that
+portion of the doctrines of Socrates which suited their own tastes and
+views, and sometimes perverted his high authority even to dogmatical or
+sophistical purposes. It is from Plato we have derived the fullest account
+of his system; but this illustrious disciple had also greatly extended his
+knowledge by his voyages to Egypt, Sicily, and Magna Græcia. Hence in the
+Academy which he founded, (while, as to morals, he continued to follow
+Socrates,) he superadded the metaphysical doctrines of Pythagoras; in
+physics, which Socrates had excluded from philosophy, he adopted the
+system of Heraclitus; and he borrowed his dialectics from Euclid of
+Megara. The recondite and _eisoteric_ tenets of Pythagoras—the obscure
+principles of Heraclitus—the superhuman knowledge of Empedocles, and the
+sacred _Arcana_ of Egyptian priests, have diffused over the page of Plato
+a majesty and mysticism very different from what we suppose to have been
+the familiar tone of instruction employed by his great master, of whose
+style at least, and manner, Xenophon probably presents us with a more
+faithful image.
+
+In Greece, the heads of sects were succeeded in their schools or academies
+as in a domain or inheritance. Speusippus, the nephew of Plato, continued
+to deliver lectures in the Academy, as did also four other successive
+masters, Xenocrates, Polemo, Crates, and Crantor, all of whom retained the
+name of Academics, and taught the doctrines of their master without
+mixture or corruption. But on the appointment of Xenocrates to the chair
+of the Academy, Aristotle, the most eminent of Plato’s scholars, had
+betaken himself to another Gymnasium, called the Lyceum, which became the
+resort of the Peripatetics. The commanding genius of their founder
+enlarged the sphere of knowledge and intellect, devised the rules of
+logic, and traced out the principles of rhetorical and poetical criticism:
+But the sect which he exalted to unrivalled celebrity, though differing in
+name from the contemporary Academics, coincided with them generally in all
+the principal points of physical and moral philosophy, and particularly in
+those concerning which the Romans chiefly inquired. “Though they differed
+in terms,” says Cicero, “they agreed in things(361), and those persons are
+grossly mistaken who imagine that the old Academics, as they are called,
+are any other than the Peripatetics.” Accordingly, we find that both
+believed in the superintending care of Providence, the immortality of the
+soul, and a future state of reward and punishment. The supreme good they
+placed in virtue, with a sufficiency of the chief external advantages of
+nature, as health, riches, and reputation. Such enjoyments they taught,
+when united with virtue, make the felicity of man perfect; but if
+virtuous, he is capable of being happy, (though not entirely so,) without
+them.
+
+Plato, in his mode of communicating instruction, and promulgating his
+opinions, had not strictly adhered to the method of his master Socrates.
+He held the concurrence of memory, with a recent impression, to be a
+criterion of truth, and he taught that opinions might be formed from the
+comparison of a present with a recollected perception. But his successors,
+both in the Academy and Lyceum, departed from the Socratic method still
+more widely. They renounced the maxim, of affirming nothing; and instead
+of explaining everything with a doubting reserve, they converted
+philosophy, as it were, into an art, and formed a system of opinions,
+which they delivered to their disciples as the peculiar tenets of their
+sect. They inculcated the belief, that our knowledge has its origin in the
+senses—that the senses themselves do not judge of truth, but the mind
+through them beholds things as they really are—that is, it perceives the
+ideas which always subsist in the same state, without change; so that the
+senses, through the medium of the mind, may be relied on for the
+ascertainment of truth. Such was the state of opinions and instruction in
+the Academy when Arcesilaus, who was the sixth master of that school from
+Plato, and in his youth had heard the lessons of Pyrrho the sceptic,
+resolved to reform the dogmatic system into which his predecessors had
+fallen, and to restore, as he conceived, in all its purity, the Socratic
+system of affirming nothing with certainty. This founder of the New, or
+Middle Academy as it is sometimes called, denied even the certain truth of
+the proposition that we know nothing, which Socrates had reserved as an
+exception to his general principle. While admitting that there is an
+actual certainty in the nature of things, he rejected the evidence both of
+the senses and reason as positive testimony; and as he denied that there
+existed any infallible criterion of truth or falsehood, he maintained that
+no wise man ought to give any proposition whatever the sanction of his
+assent. He differed from the Sceptics or Pyrrhonists only in this, that he
+admitted degrees of probability, whereas the Sceptics fluctuated in total
+uncertainty.
+
+As Arcesilaus renounced all pretensions to the certain determination of
+any question, he was chiefly employed in examining and refuting the
+sentiments of others. His principal opponent was his contemporary, Zeno,
+the founder of the stoical philosophy, which ultimately became the chief
+of those systems which flourished at Rome. The main point in dispute
+between Zeno and Arcesilaus, was the evidence of the senses. Arcesilaus
+denied that truth could be ascertained by their assistance, because there
+is no criterion by which to distinguish false and delusive objects from
+such as are real. Zeno, on the other hand, maintained that the evidence of
+the senses is certain and clear, provided they be perfect in themselves,
+and without obstacle to prevent their effect. Thus, though on different
+principles, the founder of the Stoics agreed with the Peripatetics and old
+Academicians, that there existed certain means of ascertaining truth, and
+consequently that there was evident and certain knowledge. Arcesilaus,
+though he did not deny that truth existed, would neither give assent nor
+entertain opinions, because appearances could never warrant his
+pronouncing on any object or proposition whatever. Nor did the Stoics
+entertain opinions; but they refrained from this, because they thought
+that everything might be perceived with certainty.
+
+Arcesilaus, while differing widely from the teachers of the old Platonic
+Academy in his ideas as to the certainty of knowledge, retained their
+system concerning the supreme good, which, like them, he placed in virtue,
+accompanied by external advantages. This was another subject of contest
+with Zeno, who, as is well known, placed the supreme good in virtue
+alone,—health, riches, and reputation, not being by him accounted
+essential, nor disease, poverty, and ignominy, injurious to happiness.
+
+The systems promulgated in the old and new Academy, and the stoical
+Portico, were those which became most prevalent in Rome. But the Epicurean
+opinions were also fashionable there. The philosophy of Epicurus has been
+already mentioned while speaking of Lucretius. Moschus of Phœnicia, who
+lived before the Trojan war, is said to have been the inventor of the
+Atomic system, which was afterwards adopted and improved by Leucippus and
+Democritus, whose works, as Cicero expresses it, were the source from
+which flowed the streams that watered the gardens of Epicurus(362). To the
+evidence of the senses this teacher attributed such weight, that he
+considered them as an infallible rule of truth. The supreme good he placed
+in pleasure, and the chief evil in pain. His scholars maintained, that by
+pleasure, or rather happiness, he meant a life of wisdom and temperance;
+but a want of clearness and explicitness in the definition of what
+constituted pleasure, has given room to his opponents for alleging that he
+placed consummate felicity in sensual gratification.
+
+It was long before a knowledge of any portion of Greek philosophy was
+introduced at Rome. For 600 years after the building of the city, those
+circumstances did not arise in that capital which called forth and
+promoted philosophy in Greece. The ancient Romans were warriors and
+agriculturists. Their education was regulated with a view to an active
+life, and rearing citizens and heroes, not philosophers. The _Campus
+Martius_ was their school; the tent their Lyceum, and the traditions of
+their ancestors, and religious rites, their science,—they were taught to
+act, to believe, and to obey, not to reason or discuss. Among them a class
+of men may indeed have existed not unlike the seven sages of Greece—men
+distinguished by wisdom, grave saws, and the services they had rendered to
+their country; but these were not philosophers in our sense of the term.
+The wisdom they inculcated was not sectarian, but resembled that species
+of philosophy cultivated by Solon and Lycurgus, which has been termed
+political by Brucker, and which was chiefly adapted to the improvement of
+states, and civilization of infant society. At length, however, in the
+year 586, when Perseus, King of Macedon, was finally vanquished, his
+conqueror brought with him to Rome the philosopher Metrodorus, to aid in
+the instruction of his children(363). Several philosophers, who had been
+retained in the court of that unfortunate monarch, auguring well from this
+incident, followed Metrodorus to Italy; and about the same time a number
+of Achæans, of distinguished merit, who were suspected to have favoured
+the Macedonians, were summoned to Rome, in order to account for their
+conduct. The younger Scipio Africanus, in the course of the embassy to
+which he was appointed by the Senate, to the kings of the east, who were
+in alliance with the republic, having landed at Rhodes, took under his
+protection the Stoic philosopher Panætius(364), who was a native of that
+island, and carried him back to Rome, where he resided in the house of his
+patron. Panætius afterwards went to Athens, where he became one of the
+most distinguished teachers of the Portico(365), and composed a number of
+philosophical treatises, of which the chief was that on the Duties of Man.
+
+But though the philosophers were encouraged and cherished by Scipio,
+Lælius, Scævola, and others of the more mild and enlightened Romans, they
+were viewed with an eye of suspicion by the grave Senators and stern
+Censors of the republic. Accordingly, in the year 592, only six years
+after their first arrival in Rome, the philosophers were banished from the
+city by a formal decree of the Senate(366). The motives for issuing this
+rigorous edict are not very clearly ascertained. A notion may have been
+entertained by the severer members of the commonwealth, that the
+established religion and constitution of Rome might suffer by the
+discussion of speculative theories, and that the taste for science might
+withdraw the minds of youth from agriculture and arms. This dread, so
+natural to a rigid, laborious, and warlike people, would be increased by
+the degraded and slavish character of the Greeks, which, having been an
+accompaniment, might be readily mistaken for a consequence, of their
+progress in philosophy. As most of the philosophers, too, had come from
+the states of a hostile monarch, the Senate may have feared, lest they
+should inspire sentiments in the minds of youth, not altogether patriotic
+or purely republican.
+
+  “Sed vetuere patres quod non potuere vetare.”
+
+Though driven from Rome, many of the Greek philosophers took up their
+residence in the municipal towns of Italy. By the intercession likewise of
+Scipio Africanus, an exception was made in favour of Panætius and the
+historian Polybius, who were permitted to remain in the capital. The
+spirit of inquiry, too, had been raised, and the mind had received an
+impulse which could not be arrested by any senatorial decree, and on which
+the slightest incident necessarily bestowed an accelerated progress.
+
+The Greek philosophers returned to Rome in the year 598, under the sacred
+character of ambassadors, on occasion of a political complaint which had
+been made against the Athenians, and from which they found it necessary to
+defend themselves. Notwithstanding the disrespect with which philosophers
+had recently been treated in Italy, the Athenians resolved to dazzle the
+Romans by a grand scientific embassy. The three envoys chosen were at that
+time the heads of the three leading sects of Greek philosophers,—Diogenes,
+the Stoic, Critolaus, the Peripatetic, and Carneades of Cyrene, who now
+held the place of Arcesilaus in the new Academy. Besides their
+philosophical learning, they were well qualified by their eloquence, (a
+talent which had always great influence with the Romans,) to persuade and
+bring over the minds of men to their principles. Such, indeed, were their
+extraordinary powers of speaking and reasoning, that it was commonly said
+at Rome that the Athenians had sent orators, not to persuade, but to
+compel(367). During the period of their embassy at Rome they lectured to
+crowded audiences in the most public parts of the city. The immediate
+effect of the display which these philosophic ambassadors made of their
+eloquence and wisdom, was to excite in the Roman youth an ardent thirst
+after knowledge, which now became a rival in their breasts to the love of
+military glory(368). Scipio, Lælius, and Furius, showed the strongest
+inclination for these new studies, and profited most by them; but there
+was scarcely a young patrician who was not in some degree attracted by the
+modest simplicity of Diogenes, the elegant, ornamental, and polished
+discourse of Critolaus, or the vehement, rapid, and argumentative
+eloquence of Carneades(369). The principles inculcated by Diogenes, who
+professed to teach the art of reasoning, and of separating truth from
+falsehood, received their strongest support from the jurisconsults, most
+of whom became Stoics; and in consequence of their responses, we find at
+this day that the stoical philosophy exercised much influence on Roman
+jurisprudence, and that many principles and divisions of the civil law
+have been founded on its favourite maxims. Of these philosophic
+ambassadors, however, Carneades was the most able man, and the most
+popular teacher. “He was blessed,” says Cicero, “with a divine quickness
+of understanding and command of expression(370).” “In his disputations, he
+never defended what he did not prove, and never attacked what he did not
+overthrow(371).” By some he has been considered and termed the founder of
+a third Academy, but there appears to be no solid ground for such a
+distinction. In his lectures, which chiefly turned on ethics, he agreed
+with both Academies as to the supreme good, placing it in virtue and the
+primary gifts of nature. Like Arcesilaus, he was a zealous advocate for
+the uncertainty of human knowledge, but he did not deny, with him, that
+there were truths, but only maintained that we could not clearly discern
+them(372). The sole other difference in their tenets, is one not very
+palpable, mentioned by Lucullus in the _Academica_. Arcesilaus, it seems,
+would neither assent to anything nor opine. Carneades, though he would not
+assent, declared that he would opine; under the constant reservation,
+however, that he was merely opinionating, and that there was no such thing
+as positive comprehension or perception(373). In this, Lucullus, who was a
+follower of the _old_ Academy, thinks Carneades the most absurd and
+inconsistent of the two. Carneades succeeded to the old dispute between
+the Academics and Stoics, and in his prelections he combated the arguments
+employed by Chrysippus(374), in his age the chief pillar of the Portico,
+as Arcesilaus had formerly maintained the controversy with Zeno, its
+founder. He differed from the Pyrrhonists, by admitting the real existence
+of good and evil, and by allowing different degrees of probability(375),
+while his sceptical opponents contended that there was no ground for
+embracing or rejecting one opinion more than another. Carneades was no
+less distinguished by his artful and versatile talents for disputation,
+than his vehement and commanding oratory. But his extraordinary powers of
+persuasion, and of maintaining any side of an argument, for which the
+academical philosophy peculiarly qualified him, were at length abused by
+him, to the scandal of the serious and inflexible Romans. Thus, we are
+told, that he one day delivered a discourse before Cato, with great
+variety of thought and copiousness of diction, on the advantages of a
+rigid observance of the rules of justice. Next day, in order to fortify
+his doctrine of the uncertainty of human knowledge, he undertook to refute
+all his former arguments(376). It is likely that his attack on justice was
+a piece of pleasantry, like Erasmus’ Encomium of Folly; and many of his
+audience were captivated by his ingenuity; but the Censor immediately
+insisted, that the affairs which had brought these subtle ambassadors to
+Rome, should be forthwith despatched by the Senate, in order that they
+might be dismissed with all possible expedition(377). Whether Cato
+entertained serious apprehensions, as is alleged by Plutarch, that the
+military virtues of his country might be enfeebled, and its constitution
+undermined, by the study of philosophy, may, I think, be questioned. It is
+more probable that he dreaded the influence of the philosophers themselves
+on the opinions of his fellow-citizens, and feared lest their eloquence
+should altogether unsettle the principles of his countrymen, or mould them
+to whatever form they chose. Lactantius, too, in a quotation from Cicero’s
+treatise _De Republica_, affords what may be considered as an explanation
+of the reason why Carneades’ lecture against justice was so little
+palatable to the Censor, and probably to many others of the Romans. One of
+the objections which he urged against justice, or rather against the
+existence of a due sense of that quality, was, that if such a thing as
+justice were to be found on earth, the Romans would resign their
+conquests, and return to their huts and original poverty(378). Cato
+likewise appears to have had a considerable spirit of personal jealousy
+and rivalry; while, at the same time, his national pride led him to scorn
+all the arts of a country which the Roman arms had subdued.
+
+Carneades promulgated his opinions only in his eloquent lectures; and it
+is not known that he left any writings of importance behind him(379). But
+his oral instructions had made a permanent impression on the Roman youth,
+and the want of a written record of his principles was amply supplied by
+his successor Clitomachus, who was by birth a Carthaginian, and was
+originally called Asdrubal. He had fled from his own country to Athens
+during the siege of Carthage, by the Romans, in the third Punic war(380);
+and in the year 623 he went from Greece to Italy, to succeed Carneades in
+the school which he had there established. Clitomachus was a most
+voluminous author, having written not less than four ample treatises on
+the necessity of withholding the assent from every proposition whatever.
+One of these tracts was dedicated to Lucilius, the satiric poet(381), and
+another to the Consul Censorinus. The essence of the principles which he
+maintained in these works, has been extracted by Cicero, and handed down
+to us in a passage inserted in the _Academica_. It is there said, that the
+resemblances of things are of such a nature that some of them appear
+probable, and others not; but this is no sufficient ground for supposing
+that some objects may be correctly perceived, since many falsities are
+probable, whereas no falsity can be accurately perceived or known: The
+Academy never attempted to deprive mankind of the use of their senses, by
+denying that there are such things as colour, taste, and sound; but it
+denied that there exists in these qualities any criterion or
+characteristic of truth and certainty. A wise man, therefore, is said, in
+a double sense, to withhold his assent; in one sense, when it is
+understood that he absolutely assents to no proposition; in another, when
+he suspends answering a question, without either denying or affirming. He
+ought never to assent implicitly to any proposition, and his answer should
+be withheld until, according to _probability_, he is in a condition to
+reply in the affirmative or negative. But as Cicero admits, that a wise
+man, who, on every occasion, suspends his assent, may yet be impelled and
+moved to action, he leaves him in full possession of those motives which
+excite to action, together with a power of answering in the affirmative or
+negative to certain questions, and of following the probability of
+objects; yet still without giving them his assent(382).
+
+Clitomachus was succeeded by Philo of Larissa, who fled from Greece to
+Italy, during the Mithridatic war, and revived at Rome a system of
+philosophy, which by this time began to be rather on the decline. Cicero
+attended his lectures, and imbibed from them the principles of the new
+Academy, to which he ultimately adhered. Philo published two treatises,
+explanatory of the doctrines of the new Academy, which were answered in a
+work entitled _Sosus_, by Antiochus of Ascalon, who had been a scholar of
+Philo, but afterwards abjured the innovations of the new Academy, and
+returned to the old, as taught by Plato and his immediate
+successors,—uniting with it, however, some portion of the systems of
+Aristotle and Zeno(383). In his own age, Antiochus was the chief support
+of the original principles of the Academy, and was patronized by all those
+at Rome, who were still attached to them, particularly by Lucullus, who
+took the philosopher along with him to Alexandria, when he went there as
+Quæstor of Egypt.
+
+In the circumstances of Rome, the first steps towards philosophical
+improvement, were a general abatement of that contempt which had been
+previously entertained for philosophical studies—a toleration of
+instruction—the power of communicating wisdom without shame or restraint,
+and its cordial reception by the Roman youth. This proficiency, which
+necessarily preceded speculation or invention, had already taken place.
+Partly through the instructions of Greek philosophers who resided at Rome,
+and partly by means of the practice which now began to prevail, of sending
+young men for education to the ancient schools of wisdom, philosophy made
+rapid progress, and almost every sect found followers or patrons among the
+higher order of the Roman citizens.
+
+From the earliest times, however, till that of Cicero, Greek philosophy
+was chiefly inculcated by Greeks. There was no Roman who devoted himself
+entirely to metaphysical contemplation, and who, like Epicurus, Aristotle,
+and Zeno, lounged perpetually in a garden, paced about in a Lyceum, or
+stood upright in a portico. The Greek philosophers passed their days, if
+not in absolute seclusion, at least in learned leisure and retirement.
+Speculation was the employment of their lives, and their works were the
+result of a whole age of study and reflection(384). The Romans, on the
+other hand, regarded philosophy, not as the business of life, but as an
+elegant relaxation, or the means of aiding their advancement in the state.
+They heard with attention the ingenious disputes agitated among the
+Greeks, and perused their works with pleasure; but with all this taste for
+philosophy, they had not sufficient leisure to devise new theories. The
+philosophers of Rome were Scipio, Cato, Brutus, Lucullus—men who governed
+their country at home, or combated her enemies abroad. They had, indeed,
+little motive to invent new systems, since so many were presented to them,
+ready formed, that every one found in the doctrines of some Greek sect,
+tenets which could be sufficiently accommodated to his own disposition and
+situation. In the same manner as the plunder of Syracuse or Corinth
+supplied Rome with her statues and pictures, and rendered unnecessary the
+exertions of native artists; and as the dramas of Euripides and Menander
+provided sufficient materials for the Roman stage; so the Garden, Porch,
+and Academy, furnished such variety of systems, that new inventions or
+speculations could easily be dispensed with. The prevalence, too, of the
+principles of that Academy, which led to doubt of all things, must have
+discouraged the formation of new and original theories. Nor were even the
+Greek systems, after their introduction into Italy, classed and separated
+as they had been in Greece. Most of the distinguished men of Rome,
+however, in the time of Cicero, were more inclined to one school than
+another, and they applied the lessons of the sect which they followed with
+more success, perhaps, than their masters, to the practical purposes of
+active life. The jurisconsults, chief magistrates, and censors, adopted
+the Stoical philosophy, which had some affinity to the principles of the
+Roman constitution, and which they considered best calculated for ruling
+their fellow-citizens, as well as meliorating the laws and morals of the
+state. The orators who aspired to rise by eloquence to the highest honours
+of the republic, had recourse to the lessons of the new Academy, which
+furnished them with weapons for disputation; while those who sighed for
+the enjoyment of tranquillity, amid the factions and dangers of the
+commonwealth, retired to the Gardens of Epicurus. But while subscribing to
+the leading tenets of a sect, they did not strive to gain followers with
+any of the spirit of sectarism; and it frequently happened, that neither
+in principle nor practice did they adopt all the doctrines of the school
+to which they chiefly resorted. Thus Cæsar, who was accounted an
+Epicurean, and followed the Epicurean system in some things, as in his
+belief of the materiality and mortality of the soul, doubtless held in
+little reverence those ethical precepts, according to which,
+
+  —— “Nihil in nostro corpore prosunt,
+  Nec fama, neque nobilitas, nec gloria regni.”
+
+Lucretius was a sounder Epicurean, and gave to the precepts of his master
+all the dignity and grace which poetical embellishment could bestow. But
+Atticus, the well-known friend and correspondent of Cicero, was perhaps
+the most perfect example ever exhibited of genuine and practical
+Epicurism.
+
+The rigid and inflexible Cato, was, both in his life and principles, the
+great supporter of the Stoical philosophy—conducting himself, according to
+an expression of Cicero, as if he had lived in the polity of Plato, and
+not amid the dregs of Romulus. The old Academy boasted among its adherents
+Lucullus, the conqueror of Mithridates—the Lorenzo of Roman arts and
+literature—whose palaces rivalled the porticos of Greece, and whose
+library, with its adjacent schools and galleries, was the resort of all
+who were distinguished for their learning and accomplishments. Whilst
+Quæstor of Macedonia, and subsequently, while he conducted the war against
+Mithridates, Lucullus had enjoyed frequent opportunities of conversing
+with the Greek philosophers, and had acquired such a relish for
+philosophical studies, that he devoted to them all the leisure he could
+command(385). At Rome, his constant companion was Antiochus of Ascalon,
+who, though a pupil of Philo, became himself a zealous supporter of the
+old Academy; and accordingly, Lucullus, who favoured that system, often
+repaired to his house, to partake in the private disputations which were
+there carried on against the advocates for the new or middle Academy. The
+old Academy also numbered among its votaries Varro, the most learned of
+the Romans, and Brutus, who was destined to perform so tragic a part on
+the ensanguined stage of his country.
+
+Little was done by these eminent men to illustrate or enforce their
+favourite systems by their writings. Even the productions of Varro were
+calculated rather to excite to the study of philosophy, than to aid its
+progress. The new Academy was more fortunate in the support of Cicero, who
+has asserted and vindicated its principles with equal industry and
+eloquence. From their first introduction, the doctrines of the new Academy
+had been favourably received at Rome. The tenets of the dogmatic
+philosophers were so various and contradictory, were so obstinately
+maintained, and rested on such precarious foundations, that they afforded
+much scope and encouragement to scepticism. The plausible arguments by
+which the most discordant opinions were supported, led to a distrust of
+the existence of absolute truth, and to an acquiescence in such probable
+conclusions, as were adequate to the practical purposes of life. The
+speculations, too, of the new Academy, were peculiarly fitted to the
+duties of a public speaker, as they left free the field of disputation,
+and habituated him to the practice of collecting arguments from all
+quarters, on every doubtful question. Hence it was that Cicero addicted
+himself to this sect, and persuaded others to follow his example. It has
+been disputed, if Cicero was really attached to the new Academic system,
+or had merely resorted to it as being best adapted for furnishing him with
+oratorical arguments suited to all occasions. At first, its adoption was
+subsidiary to his other plans. But, towards the conclusion of his life,
+when he no longer maintained the place he was wont to hold in the Senate
+or the Forum, and when philosophy formed the occupation “with which
+existence was just tolerable, and without which it would have been
+intolerable(386),” he doubtless became convinced that the principles of
+the new Academy, illustrated as they had been by Carneades and Philo,
+formed the soundest system which had descended to mankind from the schools
+of Athens.
+
+The attachment, however, of Cicero to the Academic philosophy, was free
+from the exclusive spirit of sectarism, and hence it did not prevent his
+extracting from other systems what he found in them conformable to virtue
+and reason. His ethical principles, in particular, appear Eclectic, having
+been, in a great measure, formed from the opinions of the Stoics. Of most
+Greek sects he speaks with respect and esteem. For the Epicureans alone,
+he seems (notwithstanding his friendship for Atticus) to have entertained
+a decided aversion and contempt.
+
+The general purpose of Cicero’s philosophical works, was rather to give a
+history of the ancient philosophy, than dogmatically to inculcate opinions
+of his own. It was his great aim to explain to his fellow-citizens, in
+their own language, whatever the sages of Greece had taught on the most
+important subjects, in order to enlarge their minds and reform their
+morals; while, at the same time, he exercised himself in the most useful
+employment which now remained to him—a superior force having deprived him
+of the privilege of serving his country as an orator or Consul.
+
+Cicero was in many respects well qualified for the arduous but noble task
+which he had undertaken, of naturalizing philosophy in Rome, and
+exhibiting her, according to the expression of Erasmus, on the Stage of
+life. He was a man of fertile genius, luminous understanding, sound
+judgment, and indefatigable industry—qualities adequate for the
+cultivation of reason, and sufficient for the supply of subjects of
+meditation. Never was a philosopher placed in a situation more favourable
+for gathering the fruits of an experience employed on human nature and
+civil society, or for observing the effects of various qualities of the
+mind on public opinion and on the actions of men. He lived at the most
+eventful crisis in the fate of his country, and in the closest connection
+with men of various and consummate talents, whose designs, when fully
+developed by the result, must have afforded on reflection, a splendid
+lesson in the philosophy of mind. But this situation, in some respects so
+favourable, was but ill calculated for revolving abstract ideas, or for
+meditating on those abstruse and internal powers, of which the
+consequences are manifested in society and the transactions of life.
+Accordingly, Cicero appears to have been destitute of that speculative
+disposition which leads us to penetrate into the more recondite and
+original principles of knowledge, and to mark the internal operations of
+thought. He had cultivated eloquence as clearing the path to political
+honours, and had studied philosophy, as the best auxiliary to eloquence.
+But the contemplative sciences only attracted his attention, in so far as
+they tended to elucidate ethical, practical, and political subjects, to
+which he applied a philosophy which was rather that of life than of
+speculation.
+
+In the writings of Cicero, accordingly, everything deduced from experience
+and knowledge of the world—every observation on the duties of society, is
+clearly expressed, and remarkable for justness and acuteness. But neither
+Cicero, nor any other Roman author, possessed sufficient subtlety and
+refinement of spirit, for the more abstruse discussions, among the
+labyrinths of which the Greek philosophers delighted to find a fit
+exercise for their ingenuity. Hence, all that required research into the
+ultimate foundation of truths, or a more exact analysis of common ideas
+and perceptions—all, in short, that related to the subtleties of the Greek
+schools, is neither so accurately expressed, nor so logically connected.
+
+In theoretic investigation, then,—in the explication of abstract ideas—in
+the analysis of qualities and perceptions, Cicero cannot be regarded as an
+inventor or profound original thinker, and cannot be ranked with Plato and
+Aristotle, those mighty fathers of ancient philosophy, who carried back
+their inquiries into the remotest truths on which philosophy rests. Where
+he does attempt fixing new principles, he is neither very clear nor
+consistent; and it is evident, that his general study of all systems had,
+in some degree, unsettled his belief, and had better qualified him to
+dispute on either side with the Academics, than to examine the exact
+weight of evidence in the scale of reason, or to exhibit a series of
+arguments, in close and systematic arrangement, or to deduce accurate
+conclusions from established and certain principles. His philosophic
+dialogues are rather to be considered as popular treatises, adapted to the
+ordinary comprehension of well-informed men, than profound disquisitions,
+suited only to a Portico or Lyceum. They bespeak the orator, even in the
+most serious inquiries. Elegance and fine writing, their author appears to
+have considered as essential to philosophy; and historic, or even poetical
+illustration, as its brightest ornament. The peculiar merit, therefore, of
+Cicero, lay in the happy execution of what had never been before
+attempted—the luminous and popular exposition of the leading principles
+and disputes of the ancient schools of philosophy, with judgments
+concerning them, and the application of results, deduced from their
+various doctrines to the peculiar manners or employments of his
+countrymen. Hence, though it may be honouring Cicero too highly, to term
+his works, with Gibbon, a Repository of Reason, they are at least a
+Miscellany of Philosophic Information, which has become doubly valuable,
+from the loss of the writings of many of those philosophers, whose
+opinions he records; and though the merit of originality rests with the
+Greek schools, no compositions transmitted from antiquity present so
+concise and comprehensive a view of the opinions of the Greek
+philosophers(387).
+
+That the mind of Cicero was most amply stored with the learning of the
+Greek philosophers, and that he had the whole circle of their wisdom at
+his command, is evident, from the rapidity with which his works were
+composed—having been all written, except the treatise _De Legibus_, during
+the period which elapsed from the battle of Pharsalia till his death; and
+the greater part of them in the course of the year 708.
+
+It is justly remarked by Goerenz, in the introduction to his edition of
+the book _De Finibus_(388), and assented to by Schütz(389), that it seems
+scarcely possible, that those numerous philosophical works, which are
+asserted to have been composed by Cicero in the year 708, could have been
+begun and finished in one year; and that such speed of execution leads us
+to suppose, that either the materials had been long collected, or that the
+productions themselves were little more than versions. In his _Academica_,
+Cicero remarks,—“Ego autem, dum me ambitio, dum honores, dum causæ, dum
+reipublicæ non solum cura, sed quædam etiam procuratio multis officiis
+implicatum et constrictum tenebat, hæc inclusa habebam; et, ne
+obsolescerent, renovabam, quum licebat, legendo. Nunc vero et fortunæ
+gravissimo percussus vulnere, et administratione reipublicæ liberatus,
+doloris medicinam a philosophiâ peto, et otii oblectationem hanc,
+honestissimam judico.” It is not easy to determine, as Schütz remarks,
+whether, by the expression “hæc inclusa habebam,” Cicero means merely the
+writings of philosophical authors, or treatises and materials for
+treatises by himself. “We ought, however,” proceeds Schütz, “the less to
+wonder that Cicero composed so many works in so short a time, when we read
+the following passage in a letter to Atticus, written in July 708—‘De
+linguâ Latinâ securi es animi, dices, qui talia conscribis! ἀπογραφα sunt;
+minore labore fiunt: verba tantum affero, quibus abundo(390)’; which
+words, according to Gronovius, imply, that the philosophic writings of
+Cicero are little more than versions from the Greek.”
+
+In the laudable attempt of naturalizing philosophy at Rome, the difficulty
+which Lucretius had encountered, in embodying in Latin verse the precepts
+of Epicurus,—
+
+  “Propter egestatem linguæ rerumque novitatem,”
+
+must have been almost as powerfully felt by Cicero. Philosophy was still
+little cultivated among the Romans; and no people will invent terms for
+thoughts or ideas with which it is little occupied. One of his letters to
+Atticus is strongly expressive of the trouble which he had in interpreting
+the philosophic terms of Greece in his native tongue(391). Thus, for
+example, he could find no Latin word equivalent to the ἐποχη, or that
+withholding of assent from all propositions, which the new Academy
+professed. The language of the Greeks had been formed along with their
+philosophy. Their terms of physics had their origin in the ancient
+Theogonies, or the speculations of the Milesian sage; and Plato informs
+us, that one might make a course of moral philosophy in travelling through
+Attica and reading the inscriptions engraved on the tombs, pillars, and
+monuments, erected in the earliest ages near the public ways and centre of
+villages(392). Hence, in Greece, words naturally became the apposite signs
+of speculative and moral ideas; but in Rome, a foreign philosophy had to
+be inculcated in a tongue which was already completely formed, which was
+greatly inferior in flexibility and precision to the Greek; and which,
+though Cicero certainly used some liberties in this respect, had too
+nearly reached maturity, to admit of much innovation. Its words,
+accordingly, did not always precisely express the subtle notions signified
+in the original language, whence there was often an appearance of
+obscurity in the idea, and of a defect in conclusions, drawn from premises
+which were indefinite, or which differed by a shade of meaning from those
+established in Greece.
+
+Aware of this difficulty, and conscious, perhaps, that he possessed not
+precision and originality of thinking sufficient to recommend a formal
+treatise, Cicero adopted the mode of writing in dialogues, in which
+rhetorical diffuseness, and looseness of definition, might be overlooked,
+and in which ample scope would be afforded for the ornaments of language.
+
+It was by oral discourse that knowledge was chiefly communicated at the
+dawn of science, when books either did not exist, or were extremely rare.
+In the Porch, in the Garden, or among the groves of the Academy, the
+philosopher conferred with his disciples, listened to their remarks, and
+replied to their objections. Socrates, in particular, was accustomed thus
+to inculcate his moral lessons; and it was natural for the scholars, who
+recorded them, to follow the manner in which they had been disclosed. Of
+these disciples, Plato, who was the most distinguished, readily adopted a
+form of composition, which gave scope to his own fertile and poetical
+imagination; while, at the same time, it enabled him more accurately to
+paint his great master. One of his chief objects, too, was to represent
+the triumph of Socrates over the Sophists; and if a writer wish to cover
+an opponent with ridicule, perhaps no better mode could be devised, than
+to set him up as a man of straw in a dialogue. As argumentative victory,
+or the embarrassment of the antagonist of Socrates, was often all that was
+aimed at, it was unnecessary to be very scrupulous about the means, and,
+considered in this view, the agreeable irony of that philosopher—the
+address with which, by seeming to yield, he ensnares the adversary—his
+quibbles—his subtle distinctions, and perplexing interrogatories, display
+consummate skill, and produce considerable dramatic effect; while, at the
+same time, the scenery and circumstances of the dialogue are often
+described with a richness and beauty of imagination, which no philosophic
+writer has as yet surpassed(393).
+
+When Cicero, towards the close of his long and meritorious life, employed
+himself in transferring to Rome the philosophy of Greece, he appears to
+have been chiefly attracted by the diffusive majesty of Plato, whose
+intellectual character was in many respects congenial to his own. His
+dialogues in so far resemble those of Plato, that the personages are real,
+and of various characters and opinions; while the circumstances of time
+and place are, for the most part, as completely fictitious as in his Greek
+models. Yet there is a considerable difference in the manner of Cicero’s
+Dialogues, from those of the great founder of the Academy. Plato ever
+preserved something of the Socratic method of giving birth to the thoughts
+of others—of awakening, by interrogatories, the sense of truth, and
+supplanting errors. But Cicero himself, or the person who speaks his
+sentiments, always takes the lead in the conference, and gives us long,
+and often uninterrupted dissertations. His object, too, appears to have
+been not so much to cover his adversaries with ridicule, or even to
+prevail in the argument, as to pay a complimentary tribute to his numerous
+and illustrious friends, or to recall, as it were, from the tomb, the
+departed heroes and sages of his country.
+
+In the form of dialogue, Cicero has successively treated of Law,
+Metaphysics, Theology, and Morals.
+
+_De Legibus_.—Of this dialogue there are only three books now extant, and
+even in these considerable chasms occur. A conjecture has been recently
+hazarded by a learned German, in an introduction to a translation of the
+dialogue, that these three books, as we now have them, were not written by
+Cicero, but that they are mere excerpts taken from his lost writings, by
+some monk or father of the church(394). There are few works, however, in
+which more genuine marks of the master-hand of Cicero may be traced, than
+in the tract _De Legibus_; and the connection between the different parts
+is too closely preserved, to admit of the notion that it has been made up
+in the manner which this critic supposes. Another conjecture is, that it
+formed part of the third, fourth, and fifth books of Cicero’s lost
+treatise _De Republica_. This surmise, however, was highly improbable,
+since Cicero, in the course of the work _De Legibus_, refers to that _De
+Republica_ as a separate production, and it is now proved to be chimerical
+by the discovery of Mai. The dialogue _De Legibus_, however, seems to have
+been drawn up as a kind of supplement to that _De Republica_, being
+intended to point out what laws would be most suitable to the perfect
+republic, which the author had previously described(395).
+
+As to the period of composition, it thus manifestly appears to have been
+written subsequently to the dialogue _De Republica_; and it is evident,
+from his letters to his brother Quintus, that the work _De Republica_ was
+begun in 699, and finished in 700(396), so that the dialogue _De Legibus_
+could not have been composed before that year. It is further clear, that
+it was written after the year 701, since he obviously alludes in it to the
+murder of Clodius,—boasting that his chief enemy was now not only deprived
+of life, but wanted sepulture, and the accustomed funeral obsequies(397).
+Now, it is well known that Clodius was slain in 701, and that his dead
+body was dragged naked by a lawless mob into the Forum, where it was
+consumed amid the conflagration raised in the Senate-house. It is equally
+evident that the treatise _De Legibus_ was written before that _De
+Finibus_, composed in 708, since, in the former work, the author alludes
+to the questions which we find discussed in the latter, as controversies
+which he is one day to take up(398). But it is demonstrable that the
+dialogue _De Legibus_ was written even previous to the battle of
+Pharsalia, which was fought in 705, since the author talks in it of Pompey
+as of a person still alive, and in the plenitude of glory(399). Chapman,
+in his dissertation _De Ætate Librorum de Legibus_, subjoined to
+Tunstall’s Latin letter to Middleton, concerning the epistles to Brutus,
+thinks that it was not written till the year 709. He is of opinion, that
+what is said of Pompey, and the allusions to the murder of Clodius, as to
+a recent event, were only intended to suit the time in which the dialogue
+takes place: But then it so happens, that no historical period whatever is
+assigned by the author of the dialogue, as the date of its actual
+occurrence. Chapman also maintains, that this is the only mode of
+accounting for the work _De Legibus_ not being mentioned in the treatise
+_De Divinatione_, where Cicero’s other philosophical productions are
+enumerated. The reason of this omission, however, might be, that the work
+_De Legibus_ never was made public by the author; and, indeed, with
+exception of the first book, the whole is but a sketch or outline of what
+he intended to write, and is far from having received the polish and
+perfection of those performances which he circulated himself.
+
+The discussion _De Legibus_ is carried on, in the shape of dialogue, by
+Cicero, his brother Quintus, and Atticus. Of these Cicero is the chief
+interlocutor. The scene is laid amid the walks and pleasure-grounds of
+Cicero’s villa of Arpinum, which lay about three miles from the town of
+that name, and was situated in a mountainous but picturesque region of the
+ancient territory of the Samnites, now forming part of the kingdom of
+Naples. This house was the original seat of the family of Cicero, who was
+born in it during the life of his grandfather, while it was yet small and
+humble as the Sabine cottage of Curius or Cincinnatus; but his father had
+gradually enlarged and embellished it, till it became a spacious and
+elegant mansion, where, as his health was infirm, he passed the greater
+part of his life in literary retirement(400). Cicero was thus equally
+attracted to this villa by the many pleasing and tender recollections with
+which it was associated, and by the amenity of the situation, which was
+the most retired and delightful, even in that region of enchanting
+landscape. It was closely surrounded by a grove, and stood not far from
+the confluence of the Fibrenus with the Liris. The former stream, which
+murmured over a rocky channel, was remarkable for its clearness, rapidity,
+and coolness; and its sloping verdant banks were shaded with lofty
+poplars(401). “Many streams,” says Mr. Kelsall, one of our latest Italian
+tourists, “which are celebrated in story and song, disappoint the
+traveller,—
+
+  ‘Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry,’—
+
+but, in the course of long travels, I never met with so abundant and lucid
+a current as the Fibrenus; the length of the stream considered, which does
+not exceed four miles and a half. It flows with great rapidity, and is
+about thirty or thirty-five feet in width near the Ciceronian isles. It is
+generally fifteen and even twenty in depth; ‘largus et exundans,’ like the
+genius of him who had so often trodden its banks. The water even in the
+intensest heats, still retains its icy coldness; and, although the
+thermometer was above 80° in the shade, the hand, plunged for a few
+seconds into the Fibrenus, caused a complete numbness(402).” Near to the
+house, the Fibrenus was divided into equal streams by a little island,
+which was fringed with a few plane-trees, and on which stood a
+portico(403), where Cicero often retired to read or meditate, and composed
+some of his sublimest harangues. Just below this islet, each branch of the
+stream rushed by a sort of cascade, into the cerulean Liris(404), on which
+the Fibrenus bestowed additional freshness and coolness, and after this
+union received the name of the more noble river(405). The epithet
+_taciturnus_, applied to the Liris by Horace, and _quietus_, by Silius
+Italicus, must be understood only of the lower windings of its course. No
+river in Italy is so noisy as the Liris about Arpino and Cicero’s villa;
+for the space of a mile and a half after receiving the Fibrenus, it formed
+no less than six cascades, varying in height from three to twenty
+feet(406). This spot, embellished with all the ornaments of hills and
+valleys, and wood and water-falls, was one of Cicero’s most favourite
+retreats. When Atticus first visited it, he was so charmed, that, instead
+of wondering as before that it was such a favourite residence of his
+friend, he expressed his surprise that he ever retired elsewhere(407);
+declaring, at the same time, his contempt of the marble pavements, arched
+ceilings, and artificial canals of magnificent villas, compared with the
+tranquillity and natural beauties of Arpinum. Cicero, indeed, appears at
+one time to have thought of the island, formed by the Fibrenus, as the
+place most suitable for the monument which he intended to raise to his
+beloved daughter Tullia(408).
+
+The situation of this villa was close to the spot where now stands the
+city of Sora(409). “The Liris,” says Eustace, “still bears its ancient
+name till it passes Sora, when it is called the Garigliano. The Fibrenus,
+still so called, falls into it a little below Sora, and continues to
+encircle the island in which Cicero lays the scene of the dialogue _De
+Legibus_. Arpinum, also, still retains its name(410).” Modern travellers
+bear ample testimony to the scenery round Sora being such as fully
+justifies the fond partiality of Cicero, and the admiration of Atticus.
+“Nothing,” says Mr Kelsall, “can be imagined finer than the surrounding
+landscape. The deep azure of the sky, unvaried by a single cloud—Sora on a
+rock at the foot of the precipitous Apennines—both banks of the Garigliano
+covered with vineyards—the _fragor aquarum_, alluded to by Atticus in the
+work _De Legibus_—the coolness, rapidity, and ultramarine hue of the
+Fibrenus,—the noise of its cataracts—the rich turquoise colour of the
+Liris—the minor Apennines round Arpino, crowned with umbrageous oaks to
+their very summits, present scenery hardly elsewhere to be equalled,
+certainly not to be surpassed, even in Italy(411).” The spot where
+Cicero’s villa stood, was, in the time of Middleton, possessed by a
+convent of monks, and was called the villa of St Dominic. It was built in
+the year 1030, from the fragments of the Arpine villa!
+
+  “Art, Glory, Freedom, fail—but Nature still is fair.”
+
+The first conference, _De Legibus_, is held in a walk on the banks of the
+Fibrenus; the other two in the island which it formed, and which Cicero
+called Amalthea, from a villa belonging to Atticus in Epirus. These three
+books are all that are now extant. It appears, however, that, at the
+commencement of the fifth dialogue, the sun having then passed the
+meridian, and its beams striking in such a direction that the speakers
+were no longer sheltered from its rays by the young plane-trees, which had
+been recently planted, they left the island, and descending to the banks
+of the Liris, finished their discourse under the shade of the alder-trees,
+which stretched their branches over its margin(412).
+
+An ancient oak, which stood in Cicero’s pleasure-grounds, led Atticus to
+inquire concerning the augury which had been presented to Marius, a native
+of Arpinum, from that very oak, and which Cicero had celebrated in a poem
+devoted to the exploits of his ferocious countryman, Cicero hints, that
+the portent was all a fiction; which leads to a discussion on the
+difference between poetry and history, and the poverty of Rome in the
+latter department. As Cicero, owing to the multiplicity of affairs, had
+not then leisure to supply this deficiency, he is requested by his guests,
+to give them, in the meanwhile, a dissertation on Laws—a subject with
+which he was so conversant, that he could require no previous preparation.
+It is agreed, that he should not treat of particular or arbitrary laws,—as
+those concerning _Stillicide_, and the forms of judicial procedure—but
+should trace the philosophic principles of jurisprudence to their remotest
+sources. From this recondite investigation he excludes the Epicureans, who
+decline all care of the republic, and bids them retire to their gardens.
+He entreats that the new Academy should be silent, since her bold
+objections would soon destroy the fair and well-ordered structure of his
+lofty system. Zeno, Aristotle, and the immediate followers of Plato, he
+represents as the teachers who best prepare a citizen for performing the
+duties of social life. Them he professes chiefly to follow; and, in
+conformity with their system, he announces in the first book, which treats
+of laws in general, that man being linked to a supreme God by reason and
+virtue, and the whole species being associated by a communion of feelings
+and interests, laws are alike founded on divine authority and natural
+benevolence.
+
+According to this sublime hypothesis, the whole universe forms one immense
+commonwealth of gods and men, who participate of the same essence, and are
+members of the same community. Reason prescribes the law of nature and
+nations; and all positive institutions, however modified by accident or
+custom, are drawn from the rule of right which the Deity has inscribed on
+every virtuous mind. Some actions, therefore, are just in their own
+nature, and ought to be performed, not because we live in a society where
+positive laws punish those who pay no regard to them, but for the sake of
+that equity which accompanies them, independently of human ordinances.
+These principles may be applicable to laws in a certain sense; but, in
+fact, it is rather moral right and justice than laws that the author
+discusses—for bad or pernicious laws he does not admit to be laws at all.
+To do justice, to love mercy, and to worship God with a pure heart, were,
+doubtless, laws in his meaning, (that is, they were right,) previous to
+their enactment, and no human enactment to the contrary could abrogate
+them. His principles, however, apply to laws in this sense, and not to
+arbitrary civil institutions.
+
+Having, in the first discourse, laid open the origin of laws, and source
+of obligations, he proceeds, in the remaining books, to set forth a body
+of laws conformable to his own plan and ideas of a well-ordered
+state;—announcing, in the first place, those which relate to religion and
+the worship of the gods; secondly, such as prescribe the duties and powers
+of magistrates. These laws are, for the most part, taken from the ancient
+government and customs of Rome, with some little modification calculated
+to obviate or heal the disorders to which the republic was liable, and to
+give its constitution a stronger bias in favour of the aristocratic
+faction. The species of instruction communicated in these two books, has
+very little reference to the sublime and general principles with which the
+author set out. Many of his laws are arbitrary municipal regulations. The
+number of the magistrates, the period of the duration of their offices,
+with the suffrages and elections in the Comitia, were certainly not
+founded in the immutable laws of God or nature; and the discussion
+concerning them has led to the belief, that the second and third books
+merely comprehended a collection of facts, from which general principles
+were to be subsequently deduced.
+
+At the end of the third book it is mentioned, that the executive power of
+the magistracy, and rights of the Roman citizens, still remain to be
+discussed. In what number of books this plan was accomplished, is
+uncertain. Macrobius, as we have seen, quotes the fifth book(413); and
+Goerenz thinks it probable there were six,—the fourth being on the
+executive power, the fifth on public, and the sixth on private rights.
+
+What authors Cicero chiefly followed and imitated in his work _De
+Legibus_, has been a celebrated controversy since the time of Turnebus. It
+seems now to be pretty well settled, that, in substance and principles, he
+followed the Stoics; but that he imitated Plato in the style and dress in
+which he arrayed his sentiments and opinions. That philosopher, as is well
+known, after writing on government in general, drew up a body of laws
+adapted to that particular form of it which he had delineated. In like
+manner, Cicero chose to deliver his sentiments, not by translating Plato,
+but by imitating his manner in the explication of them, and adapting
+everything to the constitution of his own country. The Stoic whom he
+principally followed, was probably Chrysippus, who wrote a book Περι
+Νομου(414), some passages of which are still extant, and exhibit the
+outlines of the system adopted in the first book _De Legibus_. What of
+general discussion appears in the third book is taken from Theophrastus,
+Dio, and Panætius the Stoic.
+
+_De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_.—This work is a philosophical account of
+the various opinions entertained by the Greeks concerning the Supreme Good
+and Extreme Evil, and is by much the most subtle and difficult of the
+philosophic writings of Cicero. It consists of five books, of that sort of
+dialogue, in which, as in the treatise _De Oratore_, the discourse is not
+dramatically represented, but historically related by the author. The
+constant repetition of “said I,” and “says he,” is tiresome and clumsy,
+and not nearly so agreeable as the dramatic form of dialogue, where the
+names of the different speakers are alternately prefixed, as in a play.
+The whole is addressed to Marcus Brutus in an Introduction, where the
+author excuses his study of philosophy, which some persons had blamed as
+unbecoming his character and dignity. The conference in the first two
+books is supposed to be held at Cicero’s Cuman villa, which was situated
+on the hills of old Cumæ, and commanded a prospect of the Campi Phlegræi,
+the bay of Puteoli, with its islands, the Portus Misenus the harbour of
+the Roman fleet, and Baiæ, the retreat of the most wealthy patricians.
+Here Cicero received a visit from Lucius Torquatus, a confirmed Epicurean,
+and from a young patrician, Caius Triarius, who is a mute in the ensuing
+colloquy. Torquatus engages their host in philosophical discussion, by
+requesting to know his objections to the Epicurean system. These Cicero
+states generally; but Torquatus, in his answer, confines himself to the
+question of the Supreme Good, which he placed in pleasure. This tenet he
+supports on the principle, that, of all things, Virtue is the most
+pleasurable; that we ought to follow its laws, in consequence of the
+serenity and satisfaction arising from its practice; and that honourable
+toil, or even pain, are not always to be avoided, as they often prove
+necessary means towards obtaining the most exquisite gratifications.
+Cicero, in his refutation, which is contained in the second book, gives
+rather a different representation of the philosophy of Epicurus, from his
+great poetic contemporary Lucretius. The term ἡδονη, (voluptas,) used by
+Epicurus to express his Supreme Good, can only, as Cicero maintains, mean
+sensual enjoyment, and can never be so interpreted as to denote
+tranquillity of mind. But supposing virtue to be cultivated merely as
+productive of pleasure, or as only valuable because agreeable—a cheat, who
+had no remorse or conscience, might enjoy the _summum bonum_ in defrauding
+a rightful owner of his property; and no act would thus be accounted
+criminal, if it escaped the brand of public infamy. On the other hand, if
+pain be accounted the Supreme Evil, how can any man enjoy felicity, when
+this greatest of all misfortunes may at any moment seize him!
+
+In the third and fourth books, the scene of the dialogue is changed. In
+order to inspect some books of Aristotelian philosophy, Cicero walks over
+to the villa of young Lucullus, to whom he had been appointed guardian, by
+the testament of his illustrious father. Here he finds Cato employed in
+perusing certain works of Stoical authors; and a discussion arises on that
+part of the Stoical system, relating to the Supreme Good, which Cato
+placed in virtue alone. Cicero, in his answer to Cato, attempts to
+reconcile this tenet with the doctrines of the Academic philosophy, which
+he himself professed, by showing that the difference between them
+consisted only in the import affixed to the term _good_—the Academic sect
+assigning a pre-eminence to virtue, but admitting that external advantages
+are good also in their decree. Now, the Stoics would not allow them to be
+good, but merely valuable, eligible, or preferable; so that the sects
+could be reconciled in sentiments, if the terms were a little changed. The
+Academical system is fully developed in the fifth book, in a dialogue held
+within the Academy; and, at the commencement, the associations which that
+celebrated, though then solitary spot, was calculated to awaken are finely
+described. “I see before me,” says Piso, “the perfect form of Plato, who
+was wont to dispute in this very place: These gardens not only recall him
+to my memory, but present his very person to my senses—I fancy to myself
+that here stood Speusippus—there Xenocrates—and here, on this bench, sat
+his disciple Polemo. To me, our ancient Senate-house seems peopled with
+the like visionary forms; for often when I enter it, the shades of Scipio,
+of Cato, and of Lælius, and, in particular, of my venerable grandfather,
+rise up to my imagination.” Here Piso, who was a great Platonist, gives an
+account, in the presence of Cicero and Cicero’s brother Quintus, of the
+hypothesis of the old Academy concerning moral good, which was also that
+adopted by the Peripatetics. According to this system, the _summum bonum_
+consists in the highest improvement of all the mental and bodily
+faculties. The perfection, in short, of everything consistent with nature,
+enters into the composition of supreme felicity. Virtue, indeed, is the
+highest of all things, but other advantages must also be valued according
+to their worth. Even pleasures become ingredients of happiness, if they be
+such as are included in the _prima naturæ_, or primary advantages of
+nature. Cicero seems to approve this system, and objects only to one of
+the positions of Piso, That a wise man must be always happy. Our author
+thus contrasts with each other the different systems of Greek philosophy,
+particularly the Epicurean with the Stoical tenets; and hence, besides,
+refuting them in his own person, he makes the one baffle the other, till
+he arrives at what is most probable, the utmost length to which the middle
+or new Academy pretended to reach. The chief part of the work _De
+Finibus_, is taken from the best writings of the different philosophers
+whose doctrines he explains. The first book closely follows the tract of
+Epicurus, Κυριων δοξων. Cicero’s second book, in which he refutes
+Epicurism, is borrowed from the stoic Chrysippus, who wrote ten books Of
+the beautiful, and of pleasure, (Περι τοῦ καλοῦ και της ἡδονης,) wherein
+he canvassed the Epicurean tenets concerning the Supreme Good and Evil.
+His third book is derived from a treatise of the same Chrysippus, entitled
+Περι τελων(415). The fourth, where he refutes the Stoics, is from the
+writings of Polemo, who, following the example of his master Xenocrates,
+amended the Academic doctrines, and nearly accommodated them on this
+subject of Good and Evil to the opinions of the ancient Peripatetics. Some
+works of Antiochus of Ascalon, who, in the time of Cicero, was the head of
+the old Academy, supplied the materials for the concluding dialogue.
+
+The work _De Finibus_ was written in 708, and though begun subsequently to
+the _Academica_, was finished before it. The period, however, of the three
+different conferences of which it consists, is laid a considerable time
+before the date of its publication. It is evident that the first dialogue
+is supposed to be held in 703, since Torquatus, the principal speaker, who
+perished in the civil war, is mentioned as _Prætor Designatus_, and this
+prætorship he bore in the year 704. The following conference is placed
+subsequently, at least, to the death of the great Lucullus, who died in
+701. The last dialogue is carried more than thirty years back, being laid
+in 674, when Cicero was in his twenty-seventh year, and was attending the
+lessons of the Athenian philosophers. For this change, the reason seems to
+have been, that as Piso was the fittest person whom the author could find
+to support the doctrines of the old Academy, and as he had renounced his
+friendship during the time of the disturbances occasioned by the Clodian
+faction, it became necessary to place the conference at a period when they
+were fellow-students at Athens. The critics have observed some
+anachronisms in this last book, in making Piso refer to the other two
+dialogues, of which he had no share, and could have had no knowledge, as
+being held at a later period than that of the conference he attended.
+
+_Academica_.—This work is termed Academica, either because it chiefly
+relates to the Academic philosophy, or because it was composed at the
+villa of Puteoli, where a grove and portico were called by Cicero, from an
+affected imitation of the Athenians, his Academy(416). There evidently
+existed what may be termed two editions of the _Academica_, neither of
+which we now possess perfect—what we have being the second book of the
+first edition, and the first of the second. In the first edition, the
+speakers were Cicero himself, Catulus, Lucullus, and Hortensius. The first
+book was inscribed Catulus, and the second Lucullus, these persons being
+the chief interlocutors in their respective divisions. The first dialogue,
+or Catulus, was held in the villa of that senator. Every word of it is
+unfortunately lost, but the import may be gathered, from the references to
+it in the Lucullus, or second book, which is still extant. It appears to
+have contained a sketch of the history of the old and the new Academy, and
+then to have entered minutely into the doctrines and principles of the
+latter, to which Catulus was attached. Catulus explained them as they had
+been delivered by Carneades, whose lectures his father had attended, and
+in his old age imparted their substance to his son. He refuted the
+philosophy of Philo, where that writer differed from Carneades, (which,
+though of the new Academy, he did in some particulars,) and also the
+opinions of Antiochus, who followed the old Academy. Hortensius seems to
+have made a short reply, but the more ample discussion of the system of
+the old Academy was reserved for Lucullus. Previous, however, to entering
+on this topic, our philosophers pass over from the Cuman villa of Catulus
+to that of Hortensius, at Bauli, one of the many magnificent seats
+belonging to that orator, and situated a little above the luxurious Baiæ,
+in the direction towards Cumæ, on an inlet of the Bay of Naples. Here they
+had resolved to remain till a favourable breeze should spring up, which
+might carry Lucullus to his Neapolitan, and Cicero to his Pompeian villa.
+While awaiting this opportunity, they repaired to an open gallery, which
+looked towards the sea, whence they descried the vessels sailing across
+the bay, and the ever changeful hue of its waters, which appeared of a
+saffron colour under the morning beam, but became azure at noon, till, as
+the day declined, they were rippled by the western breeze, and empurpled
+by the setting sun(417). Here Lucullus commenced his defence of the old
+Academy, and his disputation against Philo, according to what he had
+learned from the philosopher Antiochus, who had accompanied him to
+Alexandria, when he went there as Quæstor of Egypt. While residing in that
+city, two books of Philo arrived, which excited the philosophic wrath of
+Antiochus, and gave rise to much oral discussion, as well as to a book
+from his pen, entitled _Sosus_, in which he attempted to refute the
+doctrines so boldly promulgated by Philo. Lucullus was thus enabled fully
+and faithfully to detail the arguments of the chief supporter and reviver
+in those later ages of the old Platonic Academy. His discourse is chiefly
+directed against that leading principle of the new Academy, which taught
+that nothing can be known or ascertained. Recurring to nature, and the
+constitution of man, he confirms the faith we have in our external senses,
+and the mental conclusions deduced from them. To this Cicero replies, from
+the writings of Clitomachus, and of course enlarges on the delusion of the
+senses—the false appearances we behold in sleep, or while under the
+influence of phrensy, and the uncertainty of everything so fully
+demonstrated by the different opinions of the great philosophers, on the
+most important of all subjects, the Providence of the Gods—the Supreme
+Good and Evil, and the formation of the world.
+
+These two books, the Catulus and Lucullus, of which, as already mentioned,
+the last alone is extant, were written after the termination of the civil
+wars, and a copy of them sent by Cicero to Atticus. It occurred, however,
+to the author soon afterwards, that the characters introduced were not
+very suitable to the subjects discussed, since Catulus and Lucullus,
+though both ripe scholars, and well-educated men, could not, as statesmen
+and generals, be supposed to be acquainted with all the _minutiæ_ of
+philosophic controversy contained in the books bearing their names. While
+deliberating if he should not rather put the dialogue into the lips of
+Cato and Brutus, he received a letter from Atticus, acknowledging the
+present of his work, but mentioning that their common friend, Varro, was
+displeased to find that none of his treatises were addressed to him, or
+inscribed with his name. This intimation, and the incongruity of the
+former characters with the subject, determined the author to dedicate the
+work to Varro, and to make him the principal speaker in the dialogue(418).
+This change, and the reflection, perhaps, on certain defects in the
+arrangement of the old work, as also the discovery of considerable
+omissions, particularly with regard to the tenets of Arcesilaus, the
+founder of the new academy, induced him to remodel the whole, to add in
+some places, to abridge in others, and to bestow on it more lustre and
+polish of style. In this new form, the _Academica_ consisted of four
+books, a division which was better adapted for treating his subject: But
+of these four, only the first remains. The dialogue it contains is
+supposed to be held during a visit which Atticus and Cicero paid to Varro,
+in his villa near Cumæ. His guests entreat him to give an account of the
+principles of the old Academy, from which Cicero and Atticus had long
+since withdrawn, but to which Varro had continued steadily attached. This
+first book probably comprehends the substance of what was contained in the
+Catulus of the former edition. Varro, in complying with the request
+preferred to him, deduces the origin of the old Academy from Socrates; he
+treats of its doctrines as relating to physics, logic, and morals, and
+traces its progress under Plato and his legitimate successors. Cicero
+takes up the discourse when this historical account is brought down to
+Arcesilaus, the founder of the new Academy. But the work is broken off in
+the most interesting part, and just as the author is entering on the life
+and lectures of Carneades, who introduced the new Academy at Rome. Cicero,
+however, while he styles it the new Academy, will scarcely allow it to be
+new, as it was in fact the most genuine exposition of those sublime
+doctrines which Plato had imbibed from Socrates. The historical sketch of
+the Academic philosophy having been nearly concluded in the first book,
+the remaining books, which are lost, contained the disputatious part. In
+the second book the doctrines of Arcesilaus were explained; and from one
+of the few short fragments preserved, there appears to have been a
+discussion concerning the remarkable changes that occur in the colour of
+objects, and the complexion of individuals, in consequence of the
+alterations they undergo in position or age, which was one of Arcesilaus’
+chief arguments against the certainty of evidence derived from the senses.
+The third and fourth books probably contained the doctrines of Carneades
+and Philo, with Varro’s refutation of them, according to the principles of
+Antiochus. From a fragment of the third book, preserved by Nonius, it
+appears that the scene of the dialogue was there transferred to the banks
+of the Lucrine lake, which lay in the immediate vicinity of Varro’s Cuman
+villa(419).
+
+These four books formed the work which Cicero wished to be considered as
+the genuine and improved Academics. The former edition, however, which he
+had sent to Atticus, had gone abroad, and as he could not recall it, he
+resolved to complete it, by prefixing an introductory eulogy of Catulus to
+the first, and of Lucullus to the second book,—extolling, in particular,
+the incredible genius of the latter, which enabled him, though previously
+inexperienced in the art of war, merely by conversation and study, during
+his voyage from Rome, to land on the coast of Asia, with the acquirements
+of a consummate commander, and to extort the admission from his
+antagonist, Mithridates, who had coped with Sylla, that he was the first
+of warriors.
+
+This account of the two editions of the Academics, which was first
+suggested by Talæus(420), has been adopted by Goerenz(421); and it appears
+to me completely confirmed by the series of Cicero’s letters to Atticus,
+contained in the 13th book of his Epistles. It is by no means, however,
+unanimously assented to by the French and German commentators. Lambinus,
+seeing that Nonius quoted, as belonging to the fourth book of the
+_Academica_, passages which we find in the Lucullus, or second book of the
+first edition, considered and inscribed it as the fourth of the new
+edition, instead of the second of the old, in which he was followed by
+many subsequent editors; but this is easily accounted for, since the new
+edition, being remodelled on the old, many things in the last or second
+book of the old edition would naturally be transferred to the fourth or
+last of the new, and be so cited by those grammarians who wrote when the
+whole work was extant. Ranitz denies that there ever were two editions of
+the _Academica_ made public, or preserved, and that, so far from the last
+three books being lost, the Lucullus contains the whole of these three,
+but from the error of transcribers they have been run into each
+other(422). This critic is right, indeed, in the notion he entertains,
+that Cicero wished the first edition of the _Academica_ to be destroyed,
+or to fall into oblivion, but it does not follow that either of these
+wishes was accomplished; and indeed it is proved, from Cicero’s own
+letters, that the older edition had passed into extensive circulation.
+
+_Tusculanæ Disputationes_, are so called by Cicero, from having been held
+at his seat near Tusculum—a town which stood on the summit of the Alban
+hill, about a mile higher up than the modern Frescati, and communicated
+its name to all the rural retreats in its neighbourhood. This was Cicero’s
+chief and most favourite villa. “It is,” says he, “the only spot in which
+I completely rest from all my uneasiness, and all my toils.”—“It stood,”
+says Eustace, “on one of the _Tumuli_, or beautiful hills grouped together
+on the Alban Mount. It is bounded on the south by a deep dell, with a
+streamlet that falls from the rock, then meanders through the recess, and
+disappears in its windings. Eastward rises the lofty eminence, once
+crowned with Tusculum—Westward, the view descends, and passing over the
+Campagna, fixes on Rome, and the distant mountains beyond it.—On the
+south, a gentle swell presents a succession of vineyards and orchards; and
+behind it towers the summit of the Alban Mount, once crowned with the
+temple of Jupiter Latiaris. Thus Cicero, from his portico, enjoyed the
+noblest and most interesting view that could be imagined to a Roman and a
+Consul; the temple of the tutelary divinity of the empire, the seat of
+victory and triumph, and the theatre of his glorious labours,—the Capital
+of the World(423).” A yet more recent traveller informs us, that “the
+situation of the ancient Tusculum is delightful. The road which leads to
+it is shaded with umbrageous woods of oak and ilex. The ancient trees and
+soft verdant meadows around it, almost remind us of some of the loveliest
+scenes of England; and the little brook that babbles by, was not the less
+interesting from the thought, that its murmurs might perchance have once
+soothed the ear of Cicero(424).”
+
+The distance of Tusculum from Rome, which was only four leagues, afforded
+Cicero an easy retreat from the fatigues of the Senate and Forum. Being
+the villa to which he most frequently resorted, he had improved and
+adorned it beyond all his other mansions, and rendered its internal
+elegance suitable to its majestic situation. It had originally belonged to
+Sylla, by whom it was highly ornamented. In one of its apartments there
+was a painting of his victory near Nola, during the Marsic war, in which
+Cicero had served under him as a volunteer. But its new master had
+bestowed on this seat a more classical and Grecian air. He had built
+several halls and galleries in imitation of the schools and porticos of
+Athens, which he termed Gymnasia. One of these, which he named the
+Academia, was erected at a little distance from the villa, on the
+declivity of the hill facing the Alban Mount(425). Another Gymnasium,
+which he called the Lyceum, stood higher up the hill than the Academy: It
+was adjacent to the villa, and was chiefly designed for philosophical
+conferences. Cicero had given a general commission to Atticus, who spent
+much of his time in Greece, to purchase any elegant or curious piece of
+Grecian art, in painting or sculpture, which his refined taste might
+select as a suitable ornament for his Tusculan villa. He, in consequence,
+received from his friend a set of marble Mercuries, with brazen heads,
+with which he was much pleased; but he was particularly delighted with a
+sort of compound emblematical figures called _Hermathenæ_ and _Hermeraclæ_
+representing Mercury and Minerva, or Mercury and Hercules, jointly on one
+base; for, Hercules being the proper deity of the Gymnasium, Minerva of
+the Academy, and Mercury common to both, they precisely suited the purpose
+for which he desired them to be procured. One of these Minerval Mercuries
+pleased him so wonderfully, and stood in such an advantageous position,
+that he declared the whole Academy at Tusculum appeared to have been
+contrived in order to receive it(426). So intent was he on embellishing
+this Tusculan villa with all sorts of Grecian art, that he sent over to
+Atticus the plans and devices for his ceilings, which were of stucco-work,
+in order to bespeak various pieces of sculpture and painting to be
+inserted in the compartments; as also the covers for two of his wells or
+fountains, which, by the custom of those times, were often formed after
+some elegant pattern, and adorned with figures in relief(427).
+
+La Grotta Ferrata, a convent of Basilian friars, is now, according to
+Eustace, built on the site of Cicero’s Tusculan villa. Nardini, who wrote
+about the year 1650, says, that there had been recently found, among the
+ruins of Grotta Ferrata, a piece of sculpture, which Cicero himself
+mentions in one of his Familiar Epistles. In the middle of last century,
+there yet remained vast subterranean apartments, as well as a great
+circumference and extent of ruins(428). But these, it would appear, have
+been still farther dilapidated since that period. “Scarce a trace,” says
+Eustace, “of the ruins of Tusculum is now discoverable: Great part
+remained at the end of the 10th century, when a Greek monk from Calabria
+demolished it, and erected on the site, the monastery of Grotta Ferrata.
+At each end of the portico is fixed in the wall a fragment of basso
+relievo. One represents a philosopher sitting with a scroll in his hand,
+in a thinking posture—in the other, are four figures supporting the feet
+of a fifth of colossal size, supposed to represent Ajax. These, with the
+beautiful pillars which support the church, are the only remnants of the
+decorations and furniture of the ancient villa. ‘_Conjiciant_,’ says an
+inscription near the spot, ‘_quæ et quanta fuerunt_.’(429)”
+
+When Cæsar had attained the supremacy at Rome, and Cicero no longer gave
+law to the Senate, he became the head of a sort of literary or
+philosophical society. Filelfo, who delivered public lectures at Rome, on
+the Tusculan Disputations, attempted to prove that he had stated meetings
+of learned men at his house, and opened a regular Academy at
+Tusculum(430). This notion was chiefly founded on a letter of Cicero to
+Pætus, where he says that he had followed the example of the younger
+Dionysius, who, being expelled from Syracuse, taught a school at Athens.
+At all events, it was his custom, in the opportunities of his leisure, to
+carry some friends with him from Rome to the country, where the
+entertainments they enjoyed were chiefly speculative. In this manner,
+Cicero, on one occasion, spent five days at his Tusculan villa; and after
+employing the morning in declamation and rhetorical exercises, retired in
+the afternoon with his friends to the gallery, called the Academy, which
+he had constructed for the purpose of philosophical conference. Here
+Cicero daily offered to maintain a thesis on any topic proposed to him by
+his guests; and the five dialogues thus introduced, were, as we are
+informed by the author, afterwards committed to writing, nearly in the
+words which had actually passed(431). They were completed early in 709,
+and, like so many of his other works, are dedicated to Brutus—each
+conference being at the same time furnished with an introduction
+expatiating on the excellence of philosophy, and the advantage of
+naturalizing the wisdom of the Greeks, by transfusing it into the Latin
+language. In the first dialogue, entitled _De Contemnenda Morte_, one of
+the guests, who is called the _Auditor_ through the remainder of the
+performance, asserts, that death is an evil. This proposition Cicero
+immediately proceeds to refute, which naturally introduces a disquisition
+on the immortality of the soul—a subject which, in the pages of Cicero,
+continued to be involved in the same doubt and darkness that had veiled it
+in the schools of Greece.
+
+It is true, that in the ancient world some notion had been entertained,
+and by a few some hope had been cherished, that we are here only in the
+infancy of our existence, and that the grave might be the porch of
+immortality, and not the goal of our career. The natural love that we have
+for life, amidst all its miseries—the grief that we sometimes feel at
+being torn from all that is dear to us—the desire for posterity and for
+posthumous fame—the humiliating idea, that the thoughts which wander
+through eternity, should be the operations of a being destined to flutter
+for a moment on the surface of the earth, and then for ever to be buried
+in its bosom—all, in short, that is selfish, and all that is social in our
+nature, combined in giving importance to the inquiry, If the thinking
+principle was to be destroyed by death, or if that great change was to be
+an introduction to a future state of existence. Having thus a natural
+desire for the truth of this doctrine, the philosophers of antiquity
+anxiously devised arguments, which might justify their hopes. Sometimes
+they deduced them from metaphysical speculations—the spirituality, unity,
+and activity of the soul—sometimes from its high ideas of things moral and
+intellectual. Is it possible, they asked, that a being of such excellence
+should be here imprisoned for a term of years, only to be the sport of the
+few pleasures and the many pains which chequer this mortal life? Is not
+its future destination seen in that satiety and disrelish, which attend
+all earthly enjoyments—in those desires of the mind for things more pure
+and intellectual than are here supplied—in that longing and endeavour,
+which we feel after something above us, and perfective of our nature? At
+other times, they have found arguments in the unequal distribution of
+rewards and punishments; and in our sighs over the misfortunes of virtue,
+they have recognized a principle, which points to a future state of
+things, where that shall be discovered to be good which we now lament as
+evil, and where the consequences of vice and virtue shall be more fully
+and regularly unfolded, than in this inharmonious scene. They have then
+looked abroad into nature, and have seen, that if death follows life, life
+seemingly emanates from death, and that the cheerful animations of spring
+succeed to the dead horrors of winter. They have observed the wonderful
+changes that take place in some sentient beings—they have considered those
+which man himself has undergone—and, charmed by all these speculations,
+they have indulged in the pleasing hope, that our death may, like our
+birth, be the introduction to a new state of existence. But all these fond
+desires—all these longings after immortality, were insufficient to dispel
+the doubts of the sage, or to fill the moralist with confidence and
+consolation. The wisest and most virtuous of the philosophers of
+antiquity, and who most strongly indulged the hope of immortality, is
+represented by an illustrious disciple as expressing himself in a manner
+which discloses his sad uncertainty, whether he was to be released from
+the tomb, or for ever confined within its barriers.
+
+In the age of Cicero, the existence of a world beyond the grave was still
+covered with shadows, clouds, and darkness. “Whichsoever of the opinions
+concerning the substance of the soul be true,” says he, in his first
+Tusculan Disputation, “it will follow, that death is either a good, or at
+least not an evil—for if it be brain, blood, or heart, it will perish with
+the whole body—if fire, it will be extinguished—if breath, it will be
+dissipated—if harmony, it will be broken—not to speak of those who affirm
+that it is nothing; but other opinions give hope, that the vital spark,
+after it has left the body, may mount up to Heaven, as its proper
+habitation.”
+
+Cicero then proceeds to exhaust the whole Platonic reasoning for the
+soul’s immortality, and its ascent to the celestial regions, where it will
+explore and traverse all space—receiving, in its boundless flight,
+infinite enjoyment. From his system of future existence, Cicero excludes
+all the gloomy fables feigned of the descent to Avernus, the pale murky
+regions, the sluggish stream, the gaunt hound, and the grim boatman. But
+even if death is to be considered as the total extinction of sense and
+feeling, our author still denies that it should be accounted an evil. This
+view he strongly supports, from a consideration of the insignificance of
+those pleasures of which we are deprived, and beautifully illustrates,
+from the fate of many characters distinguished in history, who, by an
+earlier death, would have avoided the greatest ills of life. Had Metellus
+died sooner, he would not have laid his sons on the funeral pile—had
+Pompey expired, when the inhabitants of all Italy were decked with wreaths
+and garlands, as testimonies of joy for his restoration to health from the
+fever with which he was seized in Campania, he would not have taken arms
+unprepared for the contest, nor fled his home and country; nor, having
+lost a Roman army, would he have fallen on a foreign shore by the sword of
+a slave(432). He completes these illustrations by reference to his own
+misfortunes; and the arguments which he deduced from them, received, in a
+few months, a strong and melancholy confirmation.—“Etiam ne mors nobis
+expedit? qui et domesticis et forensibus solatiis ornamentisque privati,
+certe, si ante occidissemus, mors nos a malis, non a bonis abstraxisset.”
+
+The same unphilosophical guest, who had asserted that death was a
+disadvantage, and whom Cicero, in charity to his memory, does not name, is
+doomed, in the second dialogue, _De Tolerando Dolore_, to announce the
+still more untenable proposition, that pain is an evil. But Cicero
+demonstrated, that its sufferings may be overcome, not by remembrance of
+the silly Epicurean maxims,—“Short if severe, and light if long,” but by
+fortitude and patience; and he accordingly censures those philosophers,
+who have represented pain in too formidable colours, and reproaches those
+poets, who have described their heroes as yielding to its influence.
+
+In the third book, _De Ægritudine Lenienda_, the author treats of the best
+alleviations of sorrow. To foresee calamities, and be prepared for them,
+is either to repel their assaults, or to mitigate their severity. After
+they have occurred, we ought to remember, that grieving is a folly which
+cannot avail us, and that misfortunes are not peculiar to ourselves, but
+are the common lot of humanity. The sorrow of which Cicero here treats,
+seems chiefly that occasioned by deprivation of friends and relatives, to
+which the recent loss of his daughter Tullia, and the composition of his
+treatise _De Consolatione_, had probably directed his attention.
+
+The fourth book treats _De Reliquis animi Perturbationibus_, including all
+those passions and vexations, which the author considers as diseases of
+the soul. These he classes and defines—pointing out, at the same time, the
+remedy or relief appropriate to each disquietude. In the fifth book, in
+which he attempts to prove that virtue alone is sufficient for perfect
+felicity—_Virtutem ad beate vivendum se ipsâ esse contentam_—he coincides
+more completely with the opinions of the Stoics, than in his work _De
+Finibus_, where he seems to assent, to the Peripatetic doctrine, “that
+though virtue be the chief good, the perfection of the other qualities of
+nature enters into the composition of supreme happiness.”
+
+In these Tusculan Disputations, which treat of the subjects most important
+and subservient to the happiness of life, the whole discourse is in the
+mouth of Tully himself;—the Auditor, whose initial letter some editors
+have whimsically mistaken for that of Atticus, being a mere man of straw.
+He is set up to announce what is to be represented as an untenable
+proposition: but after this duty is performed, no English hearer or Welsh
+uncle could have listened with less dissent and interruption. The great
+object of Cicero’s continued lectures, is by fortifying the mind with
+practical and philosophical lessons, adapted to the circumstances of life,
+to elevate us above the influence of all its passions and pains.
+
+The first conference, which is intended to diminish the dread of death, is
+the best; but they are all agreeable, chiefly from the frequent allusion
+to ancient fable, the events of Greek and Roman history, and the memorable
+sayings of heroes and sages. There is something in the very names of such
+men as Plato and Epaminondas, which bestows a sanctity and fervour on the
+page. The references also to the ancient Latin poets, and the quotations
+from their works, particularly the tragic dramas, give a beautiful
+richness to the whole composition; and even on the driest topics, the mind
+is relieved by the recurrence of extracts characteristic of the vigour of
+the Roman Melpomene, who, though unfit, as in Greece,
+
+  “To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,”
+
+long trod the stage with dignity and elevation.
+
+_Paradoxa_.—This tract contains a defence of six peculiar opinions or
+paradoxes of the Stoics, somewhat of the description of those which Cato
+was wont to promulgate in the Senate. These are, that what is morally
+fitting (_honestum_) is alone good,—that the virtuous can want nothing for
+complete happiness—that there are no degrees in crimes or good
+actions—that every fool is mad—that the wise alone are wealthy—that the
+wise man alone is free, and that every fool is a slave. These absurd and
+quibbling positions the author supports, in a manner certainly more
+ingenious than philosophical. The _Paradoxa_, indeed, seem to have been
+written as a sort of exercise of rhetorical wit, rather than as a serious
+disquisition in philosophy; and each paradox is personally applied or
+directed against an individual. There is no precision whatever in the
+definitions; the author plays on the ambiguity of the words, _bonum_ and
+_dives_, and his arguments frequently degenerate into particular examples,
+which are by no means adequate to support his general proposition.
+
+_De Naturâ Deorum_.—Of the various philosophical works of Cicero, the most
+curious perhaps, and important, is that on the Nature of the Gods. It is
+addressed to Brutus, and is written in dialogue. This form of composition,
+besides the advantages already pointed out, is peculiarly fitted for
+subjects of delicacy and danger, where the author dreads to expose himself
+to reproach or persecution. On this account chiefly it seems to have been
+adopted by the disciples of Socrates. That philosopher had fallen a victim
+to popular fury,—to those imputations of impiety which have so often and
+so successfully been repeated against philosophers. In the schools of his
+disciples, a double doctrine seems to have been adopted for the purpose of
+escaping persecution, and Plato probably considered the form of dialogue
+as best calculated to secure him from the imputations of his enemies. It
+was thus, in later times, that Galileo endeavoured to shield himself from
+the attacks of error and injustice, and imagined, that by presenting his
+conclusions in the Platonic manner, he would shun the malignant vigilance
+of the Court of Inquisition(433).
+
+In the dialogue _De Naturâ Deorum_, the author presents the doctrines of
+three of the most distinguished sects among the ancients—the Epicureans,
+the Stoics, and the Academics—on the important subject of the Nature of
+the Divine Essence, and of Providence. He introduces three illustrious
+persons of his country, each elucidating the tenets of the sect that he
+preferred, and contending for them, doubtless, with the chief arguments
+which the learning or talents of the author himself could supply. Cicero
+represents himself as having gone to the house of C. Cotta the Pontifex
+Maximus, whom he found sitting in his study with C. Velleius, a Senator,
+who professed the principles of Epicurus, and Q. Lucilius Balbus, a
+supporter of the doctrines of the Stoics.—“As soon as Cotta saw me, ‘You
+are come,’ says he, ‘very seasonably, for I have a dispute with Velleius
+upon an important subject, in which, considering the nature of your
+studies, it is not improper for you to join.’—‘Indeed,’ said I, ‘I am come
+very seasonably, as you say, for here are three chiefs of the three
+principal sects met together.’ ” Cotta himself is a new Academic, and he
+proceeds to inform Cicero that they were discoursing on the nature of the
+gods, a topic which had always appeared to him very obscure, and that
+therefore he had prevailed on Velleius to state the sentiments of Epicurus
+upon the subject. Velleius is requested to go on with his arguments; and
+after recapitulating what he had already said, “with the confidence
+peculiar to his sect, dreading nothing so much as to seem to doubt about
+anything, he began, as if he had just then descended from the council of
+the gods(434).”
+
+The discourse of Velleius consists, in a considerable degree, of raillery
+and declamations directed against the doctrines of different sects, of
+which he enumerates a great variety, and which supposes in Cicero
+extensive philosophical erudition, or rather, perhaps, from the slight
+manner in which they are passed over, that he had taken his account of
+them from some ancient Diogenes Laertius, or Stanley(435).—“I have
+hitherto,” says Velleius, “rather exposed the dreams of dotards than the
+opinions of philosophers; and whoever considers how rashly and
+inconsiderately their tenets are advanced, must entertain a veneration for
+Epicurus, and rank him in the number of those beings who are the subject
+of this dispute, for he alone first founded the existence of the gods, on
+the impression which nature herself hath made on the minds of men.”
+
+Velleius having concluded his discourse, (the remainder of which can now
+have little interest as relating to the form of the gods and their
+apathy,) Cotta, after some compliments to him, enters on a confutation of
+what he had advanced; and, while admitting that there are gods, he
+pronounces the reasons given by Velleius for their existence to be
+altogether insufficient. He then proceeds to attack the other positions of
+Velleius, with regard to the form of the gods, and their exemption from
+the labours of creation and providence. His arguments against
+Anthropomorphism are excellent; and in reply to the hypothesis of Epicurus
+concerning the indolence of the gods, he inquires, “What reason is there
+that men should worship the gods, when the gods, as you say, not only do
+not regard men, but are entirely careless of everything, and absolutely do
+nothing? But they are, you say, of so glorious a nature, that a wise man
+is induced by their excellence to adore them. Can there be any glory in
+that nature, which only contemplates its own happiness, and neither will
+do, nor does, nor ever did anything? Besides, what piety is due to a being
+from whom you receive nothing, or how are you indebted to him who bestows
+no benefits?”
+
+When Cotta has concluded his refutation of Velleius, with which the first
+book closes, Balbus is next requested to give the sentiments of the
+Stoics, on the subject of the gods, to which, making a slight excuse, he
+consents. His first argument for their existence, after shortly alluding
+to the magnificence of the world, and the prevalence of the doctrine, is
+“the frequent appearance of the gods themselves. In the war with the
+Latins,” he continues, “when A. Posthumius, the Dictator, attacked
+Octavius Mamilius, the Tusculan, at Regillus, Castor and Pollux were seen
+fighting in our army on horseback, and since that time the same offspring
+of Tyndarus gave notice of the defeat of Perseus; for P. Vatienus,
+grandfather of the present youth of that name, coming in the night to
+Rome, from his government of Reate, two young men on white horses appeared
+to him, and told him King Perseus was that day taken prisoner. This news
+he carried to the Senate, who immediately threw him into prison, for
+speaking inconsiderately on a state affair; but when it was confirmed by
+letters from Paullus, he was recompensed by the Senate with land and
+exemption. The voices of the Fauns have been often heard, and deities have
+appeared in forms so visible, that he who doubts must be hardened in
+stupidity or impiety.”
+
+Balbus, after farther arguing for the existence of the gods, from events
+consequent on auguries and auspices, proceeds to what is more peculiarly
+the doctrine of the Stoics. He remarks,—“that Cleanthes, one of the most
+distinguished philosophers of that sect, imputes the idea of the gods
+implanted in the minds of men, to four causes—The first is, what I just
+now mentioned, a pre-knowledge of future things: The second is, the great
+advantages we enjoy from the temperature of the air, the fertility of the
+earth, and the abundance of various kinds of benefits: The third is, the
+terror with which the mind is affected by thunder, tempests, snow, hail,
+devastation, pestilence, earthquakes, often attended with hideous noises,
+showers of stones, and rain like drops of blood. His fourth cause,”
+continues Balbus, “and that the strongest, is drawn from the regularity of
+the motion, and revolution of the heavens, the variety, and beauty, and
+order of the sun, moon, and stars; the appearance only of which is
+sufficient to convince us they are not the effects of chance; as when we
+enter into a house, a school, or court, and observe the exact order,
+discipline, and method therein, we cannot suppose they are so regulated
+without a cause, but must conclude there is some one who commands, and to
+whom obedience is paid; so we have much greater reason to think that such
+wonderful motions, revolutions, and order of those many and great bodies,
+no part of which is impaired by the vast infinity of age, are governed by
+some intelligent being.”
+
+This argument is very well stated, but Balbus, in a considerable degree,
+weakens its effect, by proceeding to contend, that the world, or universe
+itself, (the stoical deity,) and its most distinguished parts, the sun,
+moon, and stars, are possessed of reason and wisdom. This he founds partly
+on a metaphysical argument, and partly on the regularity, beauty, and
+order of their motions.
+
+Balbus, after various other remarks, enters on the topic of the creation
+of the world, and its government by the providence of the gods. He justly
+observes, that nothing can be more absurd than to suppose that a world, so
+beautifully adorned, could be formed by chance, or by a fortuitous
+concourse of atoms(436). “He who believes this possible,” says he, “may as
+well believe, that if a great number of the one-and-twenty letters,
+composed either of gold, or any other metal, were thrown on the ground,
+they would fall into such order as legibly to form the Annals of Ennius. I
+doubt whether fortune could make a single verse of them.” He quotes a very
+beautiful passage from a now lost work of Aristotle, in which that
+philosopher urges the argument that may be deduced from providential
+design, with more soundness and imagination than are usual with him.
+Balbus then proceeds to display the marks of deliberate plan in the
+universe, beginning with astronomy. In treating of the constellations, he
+makes great use of Cicero’s poetical version of Aratus, much of which he
+is supposed, perhaps with little probability, or modesty in the author, to
+have by heart; and, accordingly, we are favoured with a considerable
+number of these verses. He also adduces manifold proofs of design and
+sovereign wisdom, from a consideration of plants, land animals, fishes,
+and the structure of the human body; a subject on which Cicero discovers
+more anatomical knowledge than one should have expected. Balbus also
+contends that the gods not only provide for mankind universally, but for
+individuals. “The frequent appearances of the gods,” he observes,
+“demonstrate their regard for cities and particular men. This, indeed, is
+also apparent from the foreknowledge of events, which we receive either
+sleeping or waking.”
+
+Cicero makes Balbus, in the conclusion of his discourse, express but
+little confidence in his own arguments.—“This is almost the whole,” says
+he, “that has occurred to my mind, on the nature of the gods, and that I
+thought proper to advance. Do you, Cotta, if I may advise, defend the same
+cause. Remember that in Rome you keep the first rank—remember you are
+Pontifex. It is a pernicious and impious custom, either seriously or
+seemingly to argue against the gods.”
+
+In the third book of this very remarkable work, Cicero exhibits Cotta as
+refuting the doctrines of Balbus. “But before I enter on the subject,”
+says Cotta, “I have a word to say concerning myself; for I am greatly
+influenced by your authority, and your exhortation at the conclusion of
+your discourse, to remember I was Cotta, and Pontifex; by which, I
+presume, you intimated that I should defend the religion and ceremonies
+which we received from our ancestors: Truly, I always have, and always
+will defend them, nor shall the arguments, either of the learned or
+unlearned, ever remove the opinions I have imbibed concerning the worship
+of the immortal gods. In matters of religion, I submit to the rules of the
+High Priests, T. Coruncanius, P. Scipio, and P. Scævola. These, Balbus,”
+continues he, “are my sentiments, both as a priest and Cotta. But you must
+bring me to your opinion by the force of your reason; for a philosopher
+should prove to me the religion he would have me embrace; but I must
+believe without proof the religion of our ancestors.”
+
+The Pontifex thus professing to believe the existence of the gods merely
+on the authority of his ancestors, proceeds to ridicule this very
+authority. He represents the appearances of Castor and Pollux, and those
+others adduced by Balbus, as idle tales. “Do you take these for fabulous
+stories?” says Balbus. “Is not the temple built by Posthumius, in honour
+of Castor and Pollux, to be seen in the Forum? Is not the decree of the
+Senate concerning Vatienus still subsisting? Ought not such authorities to
+move you?”—“You oppose me,” replies Cotta, “with stories; but I ask
+reasons of you.”
+
+A chasm here follows in the original, in which Cotta probably stated the
+reasons of his scepticism, in spite of the acts of the Senate, and so many
+public memorials of supernatural facts. “You believe,” continues Cotta,
+“that the Decii, in devoting themselves to death, appeased the gods. How
+great, then, was the iniquity of the gods, that they could not be
+appeased, but at the price of such noble blood!—As to the voice of the
+Fauns, I never heard it; if you assure me you have, I shall believe you;
+though I am absolutely ignorant what a Faun is. Truly, Balbus, you have
+not yet proved the existence of the gods. I believe it, indeed, but not
+from any arguments of the Stoics. Cleanthes, you said, attributes the idea
+that men have of the gods to four causes. The first is a foreknowledge of
+future events; the second,—tempests and other shocks of nature; the
+third,—the utility and plenty of things we enjoy; the fourth,—the
+invariable order of the stars and heavens. Foreknowledge I have already
+answered. With regard to tempests in the air, the sea, and the earth, I
+own, that many people are affrighted by them, and imagine that the
+immortal gods are the authors of them. But the question is not, whether
+there be people who believe there are gods, but whether there are gods or
+not. As to the two other causes of Cleanthes, one of which is derived from
+the plenty we enjoy, the other from the invariable order of the seasons
+and heavens, I shall treat on them when I answer your discourse concerning
+the providence of the gods.”
+
+In the meantime, Cotta goes on to refute the Stoical notions with regard
+to the reason and understanding attributed to the sun, moon, and stars. He
+then proceeds to controvert, and occasionally to ridicule, the opinions
+entertained of numerous heathen gods; the three Jupiters, and other
+deities, and sons of deities.—“You call Jupiter and Neptune gods,” says
+he; “their brother Pluto, then, is one; Charon, also, and Cerberus, are
+gods, but that cannot be allowed. Nor can Pluto be placed among the
+deities; how then can his brothers?” Cotta next ridicules the Stoics for
+the delight they take in the explication of fables, and in the etymology
+of names; after which he says, “Let us proceed to the two other parts of
+our dispute. 1st, Whether there is a Divine Providence that governs the
+world? and, lastly, Whether that Providence particularly regards mankind?
+For these are the remaining propositions of your discourse.”
+
+There follows a considerable _hiatus_ in the original, so that we are
+deprived of all the arguments of Cotta on the proposition maintained by
+Balbus, that there is a Divine Providence which governs the world. At the
+end of this chasm, we find him quoting long passages from tragedies, and
+arguing against the advantages of reason, from the ill use which has been
+made of it. He then adduces a number of instances, drawn from history and
+observation, of fortunate vice, and of wrecked and ruined virtue, in order
+to overturn the doctrine of _particular providence_; contending, that as
+no family or state can be supposed to be formed with any judgment or
+discipline, if there are no rewards for good actions, or punishment for
+bad, so we cannot believe that a Divine Providence regulates the world,
+when there is no distinction between the honest and the wicked.
+
+“This,” concludes Cotta, “is the purport of what I had to say concerning
+the nature of the gods, not with a design to destroy their existence, but
+merely to show what an obscure point it is, and with what difficulties an
+explanation of it is attended.” Balbus observing that Cotta had finished
+his discourse, “You have been very severe,” says he, “against the being of
+a Divine Providence, a doctrine established by the Stoics, with piety and
+wisdom; but, as it grows too late, I shall defer my answer to another
+day.”—“There is nothing,” replied Cotta, “I desire more than to be
+confuted.”—“The conversation ended here, and we parted. Velleius judged
+that the arguments of Cotta were the truest, but those of Balbus seemed to
+me to have the greater probability.”
+
+It seems likely that this profession or pretext, that the discourse is
+left unfinished, may (like the occasional apologies of Cotta) be
+introduced to save appearances(437). It is evident, however, that Cicero
+intended to add, at least, new prefaces to the two latter books of this
+work, probably from suspecting, as he went on, that the discourses are too
+long to have taken place in one day, as they are now represented. Balbus
+says, in the second book, “Velut a te ipso, hesterno die dictum est(438).”
+Fulvius Ursinus had remarked that this was an inadvertence, either in
+Cicero or a transcriber, as the discourse is continued throughout the same
+day. That it was not owing to a transcriber, or to any inadvertence in
+Cicero, but to a design of altering the introductions to the second and
+third books, appears from a passage in book third, where Cotta says to
+Balbus, “Omniaque, quæ a te _nudiustertius_ dicta sunt(439).” Now, it is
+extremely unlikely that there should have been two such instances of
+inadvertency in the author, or carelessness in the copyist.
+
+The work on the Nature of the Gods, though in many respects a most
+valuable production, and a convincing proof of the extensive learning of
+its author, gives a melancholy picture of the state of his mind. Unfitted
+to bear adversity, and borne down by the calamities of his country, and
+the death of his beloved daughter, (misfortunes of which he often
+complains,) Cicero seems to have become a sceptic, and occasionally to
+have doubted even of a superintending Providence. Warburton appears to be
+right in supposing, that Cicero was advanced in years before he seriously
+adopted the sceptical opinions of the new Academy. “This farther appears,”
+says he, after some remarks on this head, “from a place in his Nature of
+the Gods, where he says, that his espousing the new Academy of a sudden,
+was a thing altogether unlooked for(440). The change, then, was late, and
+after the ruin of the republic, when Cicero retired from business, and had
+leisure in his recess to plan and execute this noble undertaking. So that
+a learned critic appears to have been mistaken, when he supposed the
+choice of the new Academy was made in his youth. ‘This sect,’ says he,
+‘did best agree with the vast genius, and ambitious spirit, of _young
+Cicero_(441).’ ”
+
+It appears not, however, to have been, as Warburton supposes, altogether
+from a systematic plan, of explaining to his countrymen the philosophy of
+the Greeks, that Cicero became a sceptic; but partly from gloomy views of
+nature and providence. It seems difficult otherwise to account for the
+circumstance, that Cotta, an ancient and venerable Consul, the _Pontifex_
+of the metropolis of the world, should be introduced as contending, even
+against an Epicurean, for the non-existence of the gods. Lord Bolingbroke
+has justly remarked, “that Cotta disputes so vehemently, and his arguments
+extend so far, that Tully makes his own brother accuse him directly, and
+himself by consequence indirectly, of atheism.—‘Studio contra Stoicos
+disserendi deos mihi videtur funditus tollere.’ Now, what says Tully in
+his own name? He tells his brother that Cotta disputes in that manner,
+rather to confute the Stoics than to destroy the religion of
+mankind.—‘Magis quam ut hominum deleat religionem.’ But Quintus answers,
+that is, Tully makes him answer, he was not the bubble of an artifice,
+employed to save the appearance of departing from the public religious
+institutions. ‘Ne communi jure migrare videatur(442).’ ” Cotta, indeed,
+goes so far in his attack on Providence, that Lord Bolingbroke, who is not
+himself a model of orthodoxy, takes up the other side of the question
+against the Roman Pontiff, and pleads the cause of Providence with no
+little reason and eloquence.(443)
+
+In the foregoing analysis, or abridgment of the work on the Nature of the
+Gods, it will have been remarked, that two chasms occur in the argument of
+Cotta. Olivet enters into some discussion with regard to the latter and
+larger chasm. “I cannot,” says he, “see any justice in the accusation
+against the primitive Christians, of having torn this passage out of all
+the MSS. What appearance is there, that through a pious motive they should
+have erased this any more than many others in the same book, which they
+must undoubtedly have looked upon as no less pernicious?” Olivet seems
+inclined to suspect the Pagans; but, in my opinion, the chasms in the
+discourse of Cotta, if not accidental, are to be attributed rather to
+Christian than pagan zeal. Arnobius, indeed, speaking of this work, says,
+That many were of opinion that it ought to have been destroyed by the
+Roman Senate, as the Christian faith might be approved by it, and the
+authority of antiquity subverted(444). There is no evidence, however, that
+any such destruction or mutilation was attempted by the Pagans; and we
+find that the satire directed against the heathen deities has been
+permitted to remain, while the chasms intervene in portions of the work,
+which might have been supposed by a pious zealot, to bear, in some
+measure, against the Christian, as well as the Pagan faith. In the first
+of them, the Pontifex begins, and is proceeding to contend, that in spite
+of Acts of the Senate, temples, statues, and other commemorations of
+miraculous circumstances, all such prodigies were nothing but mere fables,
+however solemnly attested, or generally believed. Now, the transcriber
+might fear, lest a similar inference should be drawn by the sceptic, to
+that which has in fact been deduced by the English translator of this
+work, in the following passage of a note:—“Hence we see what little credit
+ought to be paid to facts, said to be done out of the ordinary course of
+nature. These miracles are well attested: They were recorded in the annals
+of a great people—believed by many learned and otherwise sagacious
+persons, and received as religious truths by the populace; but the
+testimonies of ancient records, the credulity of some learned men, and the
+implicit faith of the vulgar, can never prove that to have been, which is
+impossible in the nature of things ever to be.” At the beginning of the
+other and larger chasm, Cotta was proceeding to argue against the
+proposition of the Stoics, that there is a Divine Providence which governs
+the world. Now, there is a considerable analogy between the system of the
+ancient Stoics, and the Christian scheme of Providence, both in the
+theoretical doctrine, and in the practical inference, of the propriety of
+a cheerful and unqualified submission to the chain of events—to the
+dispensations of nature in the Stoical, and of God in the purer doctrine.
+To Christian zeal, therefore, rather than to pagan prudence, we must
+attribute the two chasms which now intervene in the discourse of Cotta.
+
+In the remarks which have been now offered on this work, _De Naturâ
+Deorum_, I trust I have brought no unfounded or uncharitable accusation
+against Cicero. He was a person, at least in his own age and country, of
+unrivalled talents and learning—he was a great, and, on the whole, a good
+man—but his mind was sensitive, and feeble against misfortune. There are
+æras, and monuments perhaps in every æra, when we are ready to exclaim
+with Brutus, “That virtue is an empty name:” And the doubts and darkness
+of such a mind as that of Cicero, enriched with all the powers of genius,
+and all the treasures of philosophy, afford a new proof of the necessity
+for the appearance of that Divine Messenger, who was then on the eve of
+descending upon earth.
+
+_De Divinatione_.—The long account which has been given of the dialogue on
+the Nature of the Gods, renders it unnecessary to say much on the work _De
+Divinatione_. This treatise may be considered, in some measure, as a
+supplement to that _De Naturâ Deorum_. The religion of the Romans
+consisted of two different branches—the worship of the gods, and the
+observation of the signs by which their will was supposed to be revealed.
+Cicero having already discussed what related to the nature and worship of
+the gods, a treatise on Divination formed a natural continuation of the
+subject(445). In his work on this topic, which was one almost peculiar to
+the Romans, Cicero professes to relate the substance of a conversation
+held at Tusculum with his brother, in which Quintus, on the principles of
+the Stoics, supported the credibility of divination, while Cicero himself
+controverted it. The dialogue consists of two books, the first of which
+comprehends an enumeration by Quintus of the different kinds or classes of
+divination, with the reasons or presumptions in their favour. The second
+book contains a refutation by Cicero of his brother’s arguments.
+
+Quintus, while walking with his brother in the Lyceum at Tusculum, begins
+his observations by stating, that he had read the third book which Cicero
+had lately written, on the Nature of the Gods, in which Cotta seemed to
+contend for atheism, but had by no means been able to refute Balbus. He
+remarks, at the same time, that the subject of divination had not been
+treated of in these books, perhaps in order that it might be separately
+discussed more fully, and that he would gladly, if his brother had leisure
+and inclination, state his own opinions on the subject. The answer of
+Cicero is very noble.—“Ego vero, inquam, Philosophiæ, Quinte, semper vaco.
+Hoc autem tempore, quum sit nihil aliud quod libenter agere possim multo
+magis aveo audire de divinatione quid sentias.”
+
+Quintus, after observing that divinations of various kinds have been
+common among all people, remarks, and afterwards frequently repeats, that
+it is no argument against different modes of divination, that we cannot
+explain how or why certain things happen. It is sufficient, that we know
+from experience and history, that they do happen(446). He contends that
+Cicero himself supports the doctrine of divination, in the poem on his
+Consulship, from which he quotes a long passage, sufficient to console us
+for the loss of that work. He argues, that although events may not always
+succeed as predicted, it does not follow that divination is not an art,
+more than that medicine is not an art, because cures may not always be
+effected. In the course of this book we have a complete account of the
+state contrivances which were practised by the Roman government, to instil
+among the people those hopes and fears whereby it regulated public
+opinion, in which view it has been justly termed a chapter in the history
+of man. The great charm, however, of the first book, consists in the
+number of histories adduced by Quintus, in proof of the truth of different
+kinds of omens, dreams, portents, and divinations.—“Negemus omnia,” says
+he, “comburamus annales.” He states various circumstances consistent with
+his and his brother’s own knowledge; and, among others, two remarkable
+dreams, one of which had occurred to Cicero, and one to himself. He asks
+if the Greek history be also a fable.—“Num etiam Græcorum historia mentita
+est?” and, in short, throughout takes the following high ground:—“Quid
+est, igitur, cur dubitandum sit, quin sint ea, quæ disputavi, verissima?
+Si ratio mecum facit, si eventa, si populi, si nationes, si Græci, si
+barbari, si majores etiam nostri, si summi philosophi, si poetæ, et
+sapientissimi viri qui res publicas constituerunt, qui urbes condiderunt;
+si denique hoc semper ita putatum est: an dum bestiæ loquantur,
+expectamus, hominum consentiente auctoritate, contenti non sumus(447)?”
+
+The second book of this work is introduced by a preface, in which Cicero
+enumerates the philosophical treatises which he had lately written. He
+then proceeds to state, that at the conclusion of the discourse of
+Quintus, which was held while they were walking in the Lyceum, they sat
+down in the library, and he began to reply to his brother’s arguments. His
+commencement is uncommonly beautiful.—“Atque ego; Accurate tu quidem,
+inquam, Quinte, et Stoice Stoicorum sententiam defendisti: quodque me
+maxime delectat, plurimis nostris exemplis usus es, et iis quidem claris
+et illustribus. Dicendum est mihi igitur ad ea, quæ sunt a te dicta, sed
+ita, nihil ut affirmem, quæram omnia, dubitans plerumque, et mihi ipse
+diffidens(448).” It is unnecessary to give any summary of the arguments of
+Cicero against auguries, auspices, astrology, lots, dreams, and every
+species of omens and prodigies. His discourse is a masterpiece of
+reasoning; and if sufficiently studied during the dark ages of Europe,
+would have sufficed, in a great degree, to have prevented or dispelled the
+superstitious gloom. Nothing can be finer than the concluding chapter on
+the evils of superstition, and Cicero’s efforts to extirpate it, without
+injuring religion. The whole thread, too, of his argumentative eloquence,
+is interwoven and strengthened by curious and interesting stories. As a
+specimen of the agreeable manner in which these are introduced, the
+twenty-fourth chapter may be cited:—“Vetus autem illud Catonis admodum
+scitum est, qui mirari se aiebat, quod non rideret haruspex, haruspicem
+quum vidisset. Quota enim quæque res evenit prædicta ab ipsis? Aut si
+evenit quippiam, quid afferri potest, cur non casu id evenerit? Rex
+Prusias, quum Annibali apud eum exsulanti depugnari placeret, negabat se
+audere, quod exta prohiberent. An tu, inquit, carunculæ vitulinæ mavis,
+quam imperatori veteri, credere? Quid? Ipse Cæsar, quum a summo haruspice
+moneretur, ne in Africam ante brumam transmitteret, nonne transmisit? Quod
+ni fecisset, uno in loco omnes adversariorum copiæ convenissent. Quid ego
+haruspicum responsa commemorem, (possum equidem innumerabilia,) quæ aut
+nullos habuerunt exitus, aut contrarios? Hoc civili bello, Dii Immortales!
+Quam multa luserunt—quæ nobis in Græciam Româ responsa haruspicum missa
+sunt? Quæ dicta Pompeio? Etenim ille admodum extis et ostentis movebatur.
+Non lubet commemorare, nec vero necesse est, tibi præsertim, qui
+interfuisti. Vides tamen, omnia fere contra, ac dicta sunt, evenisse.” One
+great charm of all the philosophical works of Cicero, and particularly of
+this treatise, consists in the anecdotes with which they abound. This
+practice of intermingling histories, might have been partly owing to
+Tully’s habits as a pleader—partly to the works having been composed in
+“narrative old age.” His moral conclusions seem thus occasionally to have
+the certainty of physical experiments, by the support which they receive
+from occurrences, suggested to him by his wide experience; while, at the
+same time,—
+
+  “His candid style, like a clean stream doth slide,
+    And his bright fancy, all the way,
+    Doth like the sun-shine on it play(449).”
+
+_De Fato_.—This tract, which is the last of Cicero’s philosophical works,
+treats of a subject which occupied as important a place in the metaphysics
+and theology of the ancients, as free will and necessity have filled in
+modern speculation. The dialogue _De Fato_ is held in the villa of Cicero,
+called the Puteolan or the Academia, which was situated on the shore of
+Baiæ, between the lake Avernus and the harbour of Puteoli. It stood in the
+curve of the bay, and almost on the beach, so as to enjoy the breezes and
+murmurs of the sea. The house was built according to the plan of the
+Academy at Athens, being adorned with a portico and grove, for the
+purposes of philosophical conference(450); and with a gallery, which
+surrounded a square court in the centre. “Twelve or thirteen arches of the
+Puteolan villa,” says Mr Kelsall, “are still seen on the side next the
+vineyard, and, intermixed as they are with trees, are very picturesque
+seen from the sea. These ruins are about one mile from Pozzuolo, and have
+always been styled _l’Academia di Cicerone_. Pliny is very circumstantial
+in the description of the site, ‘_Ab Averno lacu Puteolos tendentibus
+imposita littori_.’ The classical traveller will not forget that the
+Puteolan villa is the scene of some of the orator’s philosophical works. I
+searched in vain for the mineral spring commemorated by Laurea Tullius, in
+the well-known complimentary verses preserved by Pliny; for it was defaced
+by the convulsions which the whole of this tract experienced in the 16th
+century, so poetically described in Gray’s hexameters.” After the death of
+Cicero, the villa was acquired by Antistius Vetus, who repaired and
+improved it. It was subsequently possessed by the Emperor Hadrian, who,
+while expiring here(451), breathed out the celebrated address to his
+fleeting, fluttering soul, on its approaching departure for those cold and
+pallid regions, that must have formed in his fancy such a gloomy contrast
+to the glowing sunshine and animated shore which he left with so much
+reluctance.
+
+The dialogue is held between Cicero and Hirtius, on one of the many
+occasions on which they met to consult concerning the situation of public
+affairs. Hirtius was the author of the Commentaries on the Civil Wars, and
+perished a few months afterwards, at the battle of Modena, in the moment
+of victory. The wonderful events which had recently occurred, and the
+miserable fate of so many of the greatest and most powerful of the Romans,
+naturally introduced a conversation on destiny. We have now neither the
+commencement nor conclusion of the dialogue; but some critics have
+supposed that it originally consisted of two books, and that the fragment
+we at present possess formed part of the second book—an opinion which
+seems justified by a passage in the seventeenth chapter of the second
+book, where the first conversation is cited. Others, however, refer these
+words to a separate and previous work on Fate. The part of the dialogue
+now extant, contains a refutation of the doctrine of Chrysippus the Stoic,
+which was that of fatality. “The spot,” says Eustace, “the subject, the
+speakers, both fated to perish in so short a time, during the contest
+which they both foresaw, and endeavoured in vain to avert, were
+circumstances which give a peculiar interest to this dialogue, and
+increase our regret that it has not reached us in a less mutilated
+state(452).”
+
+I have now enumerated what may be strictly regarded as the philosophical
+and theological writings of Cicero. Some of the advantages to be derived
+from these productions, have already been pointed out during our progress.
+But on a consideration of the whole, it is manifest that the chief profit
+accruing from them, is the satisfactory evidence which they afford of the
+little reason we have to regret the loss of the writings of Zeno,
+Cleanthes, Chrysippus, and other Greek philosophers. The intrinsic value
+of these works of Cicero, consists chiefly in what may be called the Roman
+portion of them—in the anecdotes of distinguished Romans, and of the
+customs and opinions of that sovereign people.
+
+We now proceed to the _moral_ writings of Cicero, of which the most
+important is the work _De Officiis_. The ancient Romans had but an
+imperfect notion of moral obligations; their virtues were more stern than
+amiable, and their ardent exclusive patriotism restricted the wide claims
+of philanthropy, on the one hand, and of domestic duties, on the other.
+Panætius, a Greek philosopher, who resided at Rome, in the time of Scipio,
+wrote a book entitled Περι Καθηκοντος. He divided his subject according to
+the threefold considerations which he conceived should operate in
+determining our resolutions with regard to the performance of moral
+duties; 1. Whether the thing itself be virtuous or shameful; 2. Whether it
+conduce to utility and the enjoyment of life; 3. What choice is to be made
+when an apparent utility seems to clash with virtue. Cicero followed
+nearly the same arrangement. In the first book he treats of what is
+virtuous in itself, and shows in what manner our duties are founded in
+morality and virtue—in the right perception of truth, justice, fortitude,
+and decorum; which four qualities are referred to as the constituent parts
+of virtue, and the sources from which all our duties are drawn. In the
+second book, the author enlarges on those duties which relate to utility,
+the improvement of life, and the means employed for the attainment of
+wealth and power. This division of the work principally regards political
+advancement, and the honourable means of gaining popularity, as
+generosity, courtesy, and eloquence. Thus far Cicero had, in all
+probability, closely followed the steps of Panætius. Garve, in his
+commentary on this work(453), remarks, that it is quite clear, when he
+comes to the more subtle and philosophic parts of his subject, that Cicero
+translates from the Greek, and that he has not always found words in his
+own language to express the nicer distinctions of the Greek schools. The
+work of Panætius, however, was left imperfect, and did not treat of the
+third part of the subject, the choice and distinction to be made when
+there was a jarring or inconsistency between virtue and utility. On this
+topic, accordingly, Cicero was left to his own resources. The discussion,
+of course, relates only to the subordinate duties, as the true and
+undoubted _honestum_ never can be put in competition with private
+advantage, or be violated for its sake. As to the minor duties, the great
+maxim inculcated is that nothing should be accounted useful or profitable
+but what is strictly virtuous, and that, in fact, there ought to be no
+separation of the principles of virtue and utility. Cicero enters into
+some discussion, however, and affords some rules to enable us to form a
+just estimate of both in cases of doubt, where seeming utility comes into
+competition with virtue. Accordingly, he proposes and decides a good many
+questions in casuistry, in order to fix in what situations one may seek
+private gain with honour. He takes his examples from Roman history, and
+particularly considers the case of Regulus in the obligation of his oath,
+and the advice which he gave to the Roman Senate. The author disclaims
+having been indebted to any preceding writers on this subject; but it
+appears, from what he afterwards states, that the sixth book of the work
+of Hecato, a scholar of Panætius, was full of questions of this kind: As,
+for example—If something must be thrown into the sea to lighten a vessel
+in a storm, whether one should sacrifice a valuable horse, or a worthless
+slave? Whether, if, during a shipwreck, a fool has got hold of a plank, a
+wise man ought to take it from him, if he be able? If one, unknowingly,
+receives bad money for his goods, may he pay it away to a third hand,
+after he is aware that it is bad? Diogenes, it seems, one of the three
+philosophic ambassadors who came to Rome from Athens, in the end of the
+sixth century, maintained the affirmative of this last proposition.
+
+The subject being too extensive for dialogue, (the form of his other
+philosophical treatises,) the author has addressed the work _De Officiis_
+to his son, and has represented it as written for his instruction. “It
+is,” says Kelsall, “the noblest present ever made by a parent to a child.”
+Cicero declares, that he intended to treat in it of all the duties(454);
+but it is generally considered to have been chiefly drawn up as a manual
+of political morality, and as a guide to young Romans of his son’s age and
+distinction, which might enable them to attain political eminence, and to
+tread with innocence and safety “the slippery steeps of power.”
+
+_De Senectute_.——
+
+  “O Thou all eloquent, whose mighty mind
+  Streams from the depths of ages on mankind,
+  Streams like the day—who angel-like hast shed
+  Thy full effulgence on the hoary head;
+  Speaking in Cato’s venerable voice—
+  “Look up and faint not—faint not, but rejoice”—
+  From thy Elysium guide us(455).”
+
+The treatise _De Senectute_ is not properly a dialogue, but a continued
+discourse, delivered by Cato the Censor, at the request of Scipio and
+Lælius. It is, however, one of the most interesting pieces of the kind
+which have descended to us from antiquity; and no reader can wonder that
+Cicero experienced such pleasure in its composition, that the delightful
+employment, not only, as he says, made him forget the infirmities of old
+age, but rendered that portion of existence agreeable. In consequence of
+the period of life to which Cicero had attained, at the time of its
+composition, and the circumstances in which he was then placed, it must,
+indeed, have been penned with peculiar interest and feeling. It was
+written by him in his 63d year, and is addressed to his friend Atticus,
+(who reached the same term of existence,) with a view of rendering to both
+the accumulating burdens of age as light as possible. In order to give his
+precepts the greater force, he represents them as delivered by the elder
+Cato, (while flourishing in the eighty-fourth year of a vigorous and
+useful old age,) on occasion of young Scipio and Lælius expressing their
+admiration at the wonderful ease with which he still bore the load of
+life. This affords the author an opportunity of entering into a full
+explanation of his ideas on the subject. His great object is to show that
+the closing period of life may be rendered, not only tolerable, but
+comfortable, by internal resources of happiness. He reduces those causes
+which are commonly supposed to constitute the infelicity of advanced age,
+under four general heads:—That it incapacitates from mingling in the
+affairs of the world—that it produces infirmities of body—that it
+disqualifies for the enjoyment of sensual gratifications—and that it
+brings us to the verge of death. Some of these supposed disadvantages, he
+maintains, are imaginary, and for any real pleasures of which old men are
+deprived, others more refined and higher may be substituted. The whole
+work is agreeably diversified and illustrated by examples of eminent Roman
+citizens, who had passed a respected and agreeable evening of life.
+Indeed, so much is said of those individuals who reached a happy old age,
+that it may rather be styled a Treatise on Old Men, than on Old Age. On
+the last point, the near approach of death, it is argued, conformably to
+the first book of the Tusculan Questions, that if death extinguish the
+soul’s existence, it is utterly to be disregarded, but much to be desired,
+if it convey her to a happier region. The apprehension of future
+punishment, as in the Tusculan Disputations, is laid entirely aside, and
+it is assumed as a principle, that, after death, we either shall not be
+miserable, or be superlatively happy. In other respects, the tract _De
+Senectute_ almost seems a confutation of the first book of the Tusculan
+Questions, which is chiefly occupied in showing the wretchedness of
+long-protracted existence. The sentiments put into the mouth of Cato, are
+acknowledged by Cicero as his own; but, notwithstanding this, and also a
+more elegant and polished style of composition than could be expected from
+the Censor, many characteristics of his life, conversation, and manners,
+are brought before us—his talk is a little boastful, and his sternness,
+though softened down by old age into an agreeable gossipping garrulity, is
+still visible; and, on the whole, the discourse is so managed, that we
+experience, in reading it, something of that complaisant respect, which we
+feel in intercourse with a venerable old man, who has around him so much
+of the life to come, as to be purified at least from the grosser desires
+of this lower world.
+
+It has been remarked as extraordinary, that, amidst the anxious
+enumeration of the comforts of age, those arising from domestic society
+are not mentioned by Cicero; but his favourite daughter Tullia was now no
+more, and the husband of Terentia, the father of Marcus Cicero, and the
+father-in-law of Dolabella, may have felt something on that subject, of
+which he was willing to spare himself the recollection. But though he has
+omitted what we number among its chief consolations, still he has
+represented advanced age under too favourable a view. He denies, for
+instance, that the memory is impaired by it—asserting, that everything
+continues to be remembered, in which we take an interest, for that no old
+man ever forgot where he had concealed his treasure. He has, besides, only
+treated of an old age distinguished by deeds or learning, terminating a
+life great and glorious in the eyes of men. The table of the old man whom
+he describes, is cheered by numerous friends, and his presence, wherever
+he appears, is hailed by clients and dependants. All his examples are
+drawn from the higher and better walks of life. In the venerable picture
+of the Censor, we have no traces of second childhood, or of the slippered
+pantaloon, or of that melancholy and almost frightful representation, in
+the tenth satire of Juvenal. But even persons of the station, and dignity,
+and talents of Cato, are, in old age, liable to weaknesses and
+misfortunes, with which the pleasing portrait, that Tully has drawn, is in
+no way disfigured:—
+
+  “In life’s last scene, what prodigies surprise,
+  Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise!
+  From Marlborough’s eyes the tears of dotage flow,
+  And Swift expires a driveller and a show.”
+
+The treatise _De Senectute_ has been versified by Denham, under the title
+of _Cato Major_. The subject of the evils of old age is divided, as by
+Cicero, into four parts. “I can neither,” says he, in his preface, “call
+this piece Tully’s nor my own, being much altered from the original, not
+only by the change of the style, but by addition and subtraction.” In
+fact, the fine sentiments are Cicero’s—the doggerel English verse, into
+which he has converted Cicero’s classical prose, his own. The fourth part,
+on the approach of death, is that which is best versified.
+
+This tract is also the model of the dialogue _Spurinna, or the Comforts of
+Old Age_, by Sir Thomas Bernard. Hough, Bishop of Worcester, who is in his
+ninetieth year at the date of the conference, supposed to be held in 1739,
+is the Cato of the dialogue. The other interlocutors are Gibson, Bishop of
+London, and Mr Lyttleton, subsequently Lord Lyttleton. After considering,
+in the same manner as Cicero, the disadvantages of old age, the English
+author proceeds to treat of its advantages, and the best mode of
+increasing its comforts. Many ideas and arguments are derived from Cicero;
+but among the consolations of advanced age, the promises of revelation
+concerning a future state of happiness, to which the Roman was a stranger,
+are prominently brought forward, and the illustrations are chiefly drawn
+from British, instead of Grecian or Roman history.
+
+_De Amicitiâ_.—In this, as in all his other dialogues, Cicero has most
+judiciously selected the persons whom he introduces as speakers. They were
+men of eminence in the state; and though deceased, the Romans had such a
+just veneration for their ancestors, that they would listen with the
+utmost interest even to the supposed conversation of the ancient heroes or
+sages of their country. Such illustrious names bestowed additional dignity
+on what was delivered, and even now affect us with sentiments of
+veneration far superior to that which is felt for the itinerant sophists,
+who, with the exception of Socrates, are the chief speakers in the
+dialogues of Plato.
+
+The memorable and hereditary friendship which subsisted between Lælius and
+the younger Scipio Africanus, rendered them the most suitable characters
+from whom the sentiments expressed on this delightful topic could be
+supposed to flow. Their mutual and unshaken attachment threw an additional
+lustre over the military glory of the one, and the contemplative wisdom of
+the other. “Such,” says Cicero in the introduction to the treatise _De
+Republicâ_, “was the common law of friendship between them, that Lælius
+adored Africanus as a god, on account of his transcendent military fame;
+and that Scipio, when they were at home, revered his friend, who was older
+than himself, as a father(456).” The kindred soul of Cicero appears to
+have been deeply struck with this delightful assemblage of all the noblest
+and loveliest qualities of our nature. The friendship which subsisted
+between himself and Atticus was another beautiful example of a similar
+kind: And the dialogue _De Amicitiâ_ is accordingly addressed with
+peculiar propriety to Atticus, who, as Cicero tells him in his dedication,
+could not fail to discover his own portrait in the delineation of a
+perfect friend. This treatise approaches nearer to dialogue than that _De
+Senectute_, for there is a story, with the circumstances of time and
+place. Fannius, the historian, and Mucius Scævola, the Augur, both
+sons-in-law of Lælius, paid him a visit immediately after the sudden and
+suspicious death of Scipio Africanus. The recent loss which Lælius had
+thus sustained, leads to an eulogy on the inimitable virtues of the
+departed hero, and to a discussion on the true nature of that tie by which
+they had been so long connected. Cicero, while in his earliest youth, had
+been introduced by his father to Mucius Scævola; and hence, among other
+interesting matters which he enjoyed an opportunity of hearing, he was one
+day present while Scævola related the substance of the conference on
+Friendship, which he and Fannius had held with Lælius a few days after the
+death of Scipio. Many of the ideas and sentiments which the mild Lælius
+then uttered, are declared by Scævola to have originally flowed from
+Scipio, with whom the nature and laws of friendship formed a favourite
+topic of discourse. This, perhaps, is not entirely a fiction, or merely
+told to give the stamp of authenticity to the dialogue. Some such
+conversation was probably held and related; and I doubt not, that a few of
+the passages in this celebrated dialogue reflect the sentiments of Lælius,
+or even of Africanus himself.
+
+The philosophical works of Cicero, which have been hitherto enumerated,
+are complete, or nearly so. But it is well known that he was the author of
+many other productions which have now been entirely lost, or of which only
+fragments remain.
+
+Of these, the most important was the Treatise _De Republicâ_, which, in
+the general wreck of learning, shared the fate of the institutions it was
+intended to celebrate. The greater part of this dialogue having
+disappeared along with the _Origines_ of Cato, the works of Varro, and the
+History of Sallust, we have been deprived of all the writings which would
+have thrown the most light on the Roman institutions, manners, and
+government—of everything, in short, which philosophically traced the
+progress of Rome, from its original barbarism to the perfection which it
+had attained in the age of the second Scipio Africanus.
+
+There are few monuments of ancient literature, of which the disappearance
+had excited more regret, than that of the work _De Republicâ_, which was
+long believed to have been the grand repository of all the political
+wisdom of the ancients. The great importance of the subject—treated, too,
+by a writer at once distinguished by his genius and former official
+dignity; the pride and predilection with which the author himself speaks
+of it, and the sublimity and beauty of the fragment entitled _Somnium
+Scipionis_, preserved from it by Macrobius, all concurred to exalt this
+treatise in the imagination of the learned, and to exasperate their
+vexation at its loss. The fathers of the church, particularly Lactantius,
+had afforded some insight into the arguments employed in it on different
+topics; several fragments existed in the works of the grammarians, and a
+complete copy was extant as late as the 11th century. Since that time the
+literary world have been flattered at different periods with hopes of its
+discovery; but it is only within the last few years that such a portion of
+it has been recovered, as may suffice, in a considerable degree, to
+satisfy curiosity, though not perhaps to fulfil expectation.
+
+It is well known to many, and will be mentioned more fully in the
+_Appendix_, that owing to a scarcity of papyrus and parchment, it was
+customary, at different times, to erase old, in order to admit new,
+writing. To a MS. of this kind, the name of Palimpsest has been given—a
+term made use of by Cicero himself. In a letter to the lawyer Trebatius,
+who had written to him on such a sheet, Cicero says, “that while he must
+praise him for his parsimony in employing a palimpsest, he cannot but
+wonder what he had erased to scribble such a letter, except it were his
+law notes: For I cannot think,” adds he, “that you would efface my letter
+to substitute your own(457).” This practice became very common in the
+middle ages, when both the papyrus and parchment were scarce, and when the
+classics were, with few exceptions, no longer the objects of interest.
+Montfaucon had remarked, that these obliterated MSS. were perhaps more
+numerous than those which had been written on for the first time(458). But
+though in some cases the original writing was still visible on close
+observation, no practical use was made of such inspection till Angelo Mai
+published some fragments recovered from palimpsest MSS. in the Ambrosian
+library, of which he was keeper. Encouraged by his success, he persevered
+in this new pursuit, and published at intervals fragments of considerable
+value. At length, being called to Rome as a recompense for his learned
+labours, Mai prosecuted in the Vatican those noble researches which he had
+commenced at Milan; and it is to him we now owe the discovery and
+publication of a considerable portion of Cicero _De Republicâ_, which had
+been expunged, (it is supposed in the 6th century,) and crossed by a new
+writing, which contained a commentary by St Augustine on the Psalms(459).
+
+The work _De Republicâ_ was begun by Cicero in the month of May, in the
+year 699, when the author was in the fifty-second year of his age, so
+that, of all his philosophical writings, it was at least the earliest
+commenced. In a letter to his brother Quintus, he tells him that he had
+employed himself in his Cuman and Pompeian villas, in writing a large and
+laborious political work; that, should it succeed to his mind, it would be
+well, but, if not, he would cast it into that sea which was in view when
+he wrote it; and, as it was impossible for him to be idle, commence some
+other undertaking(460). He had proceeded, however, but a little way, when
+he repeatedly changed the whole plan of the work; and it is curious to
+perceive, that an author of so perfect a genius as Cicero, had similar
+advices from friends, and the same discouragement, and doubts, and
+irresolution, which agitate inferior writers.
+
+When he had finished the first and second books, they were read to some of
+his friends at his Tusculan villa. Sallust, who was one of the company
+present, advised him to change his plan, and to treat the subject in his
+own person—alleging that the introduction of those ancient philosophers
+and statesmen, to whom Cicero had assigned parts in the dialogue, instead
+of adding gravity, gave a fictitious air to the argument, which would have
+greater weight if delivered from Cicero himself, as being the work, not of
+a sophist or contemplative theorist, but of a consular senator and
+statesman, conversant in the greatest affairs, and writing only what his
+own experience had taught him to be true. These reasons seemed to Cicero
+very plausible, and for some time made him think of altering his plan,
+especially since, by placing the scene of the dialogue so far back, he had
+precluded himself from touching on those important revolutions in the
+Republic, which were later than the period to which he had confined
+himself. But after some deliberation, feeling reluctant to throw away the
+two books which were already finished, and with which he was much pleased,
+he resolved to adhere to his original plan(461). And as he had preferred
+it from the first, for the sake of avoiding offence, so he pursued it
+without any other alteration than that he now limited to six what he had
+before proposed to extend to nine books. These six were made public
+previously to his departure for the government of Cilicia. While there, he
+received the epistolary congratulations of his friends on their
+success(462), and in his answers he discloses all the delight of a
+gratified and successful author(463).
+
+Mai discusses at considerable length the question, To whom the treatise
+_De Republicâ_ was dedicated. The beginning of the proœmium to the first
+book, which might have determined this point, is lost; but the author
+says, “Disputatio repetenda memoriâ est, quæ mihi, _tibique quondam
+adolescentulo_, est a P. Rutilio Rufo, Zmyrnæ cùm simul essemus, complures
+dies exposita.” Cicero was at Smyrna in the twenty-ninth year of his age,
+and it is evident that his companion, to whom this treatise is dedicated,
+was younger than himself, as he says, “Mihi, _tibique_ quondam
+_adolescentulo_.” Atticus was two years older than Cicero, and therefore
+could not be the person. In fact, there is every reason to suppose that
+the treatise _De Republicâ_ was dedicated to its author’s younger brother
+Quintus, who, as we know from the proœmium of the last book, _De Finibus_,
+was with Cicero at Athens during the voyage, in the course of which he
+touched at Smyrna—who probably attended him to Asia,—and whose age suited
+the expression “mihi, tibique adolescentulo.” Add to this, that Cicero,
+when he mentions to his brother, (in the passage of the letter above
+referred to,) that he meant to alter the plan of his work, says, “Nunc
+loquar ipse _tecum_, et tamen illa quæ institueram ad te, si Romam venero,
+mittam(464).” The work in its first concoction, therefore, was addressed
+to Quintus, and, as the author, after some hesitation, published it nearly
+in its original form, it can scarcely be doubted that it was still
+dedicated to his brother.
+
+The first book _De Republicâ_, which was one of those read by Cicero to
+Sallust and some other friends, in his Tusculan villa, is, as already
+mentioned, imperfect at the commencement. Not much, however, seems to be
+wanting, and a prologue of considerable length still remains, in which the
+author (pleading, perhaps, his own cause) combats the opinions of
+philosophers, who, preferring a contemplative to an active life, blame
+those who engage in public affairs. To the former he opposes the example
+of many wise and great men, and answers those objections to a busy
+political life, which have been repeatedly urged against it. This prologue
+contains some good reasoning, and, like all the writings of its
+illustrious author, displays a noble patriotic feeling. He remarks, that
+he had entered into this discussion as introductory to a book concerning
+the republic, since it seemed proper, as prefatory to such a work, to
+combat the sentiments of those who deny that a philosopher should be a
+statesman. “As to the work itself,” says he, addressing (as I have
+supposed) his brother, “I shall lay down nothing new or peculiar to
+myself, but shall repeat a discussion which once took place among the most
+illustrious men of their age, and the wisest of our state, such as it was
+related to myself, and to you when a youth, by P. Rutilius Rufus, when we
+were with him some days at Smyrna—in which discussion nothing of
+importance to the right constitution of a commonwealth, appears to have
+been omitted.”
+
+The author then proceeds to mention, that during the consulship of
+Tuditanus and Aquilius, (as he had heard from Rufus,) the younger Scipio
+Africanus determined to pass the Latin festivals (Latinæ Feriæ) in his
+gardens, where some of his most intimate friends had promised to visit
+him. The first of these who makes his appearance is his nephew, Quintus
+Tubero, a person devoted to the Stoical philosophy, and noted for the
+austerity of his manners. A remark which Tubero makes about two suns, a
+prodigy which, it seems, had lately appeared in the heavens, leads Scipio
+to praise Socrates for his abandonment of physical pursuits, as neither
+very useful to man, nor capable of being thoroughly investigated—a
+sentiment (by the way) which, with all due submission to the Greek
+philosopher, does little credit to his sagacity, as physical inquiries
+have been not only highly useful to mankind, but are almost the only
+subjects in which accurate science has been attained. Furius, Philus, and
+Rutilius, who is stated to have related the discussion to Cicero, now
+enter, and, at last, comes Lælius, attended by his friend, Spurius
+Mummius, (brother to the well-known connoisseur in the fine arts who took
+Corinth,) and by his two sons-in-law, C. Fannius and Q. Scævola. After
+saluting them, Scipio, as it was now winter, takes them to a sunny spot,
+in a meadow, and in proceeding thither the party is joined by M. Manilius.
+
+“In this choice of his principal speakers, Cicero,” as has been well
+remarked, “was extremely judicious and happy. It was necessary that the
+persons selected should have been distinguished both as statesmen and as
+scholars, in order that a philosophical discussion might appear consistent
+with their known characters, and that a high political reputation might
+give authority to their remarks on government. Scipio and Lælius united
+both these requisites in a remarkable degree. They were among the earliest
+of the Romans who added the graces of Grecian taste and learning to the
+manly virtues of their own ruder country. These accomplishments had
+refined and polished their characters, without at all detracting from
+their force and purity. The very name of the Scipios, the _duo fulmina
+belli_, was the symbol of military talent, patriotism, and magnanimity:
+Lælius was somewhat less distinguished in active life; but enjoyed, on the
+other hand, a still higher reputation for contemplative wisdom(465).”
+
+After the party had been all seated, the subject of the two suns is
+resumed; and Lælius, while he remarks that they had enough to occupy
+attention in matters more at hand, adds, that since they were at present
+idle, he for his part, had no objection to hear Philus, who was fond of
+astronomical pursuits, on the subject. Philus, thus encouraged, proceeds
+to give an account of a kind of Orrery, which had been formed by
+Archimedes, and having been brought to Rome by Marcellus, its structure,
+as well as uses, had on one occasion, when Philus was present, been
+explained by C. Sulpicius Gallus. The application of this explanation to
+the phenomenon of the two suns is lost, as a _hiatus_ of eight pages here
+occurs in the palimpsest. Probably, the solution of the problem would not,
+if extant, make a great figure in the _Philosophical Transactions_. But
+one cannot fail to admire the discursive and active genius of Cicero, who
+considered all knowledge as an object deserving ardent pursuit(466).
+
+At the end of the _hiatus_, we find Scipio, in reference to Gallus’s
+astronomical knowledge, which had been celebrated by Philus, relating,
+that when his father, Paulus Æmilius, commanded in Macedonia, the army
+being terrified by an eclipse, Gallus had calmed their fears by explaining
+the phænomenon—an anecdote, which, with another similar to it here told of
+Pericles, proves the value of physical pursuits, and their intimate
+connection with the affairs of life. This inference seems to have been
+drawn in a passage which is lost; and several beautiful sentiments follow,
+similar to some of those in the _Somnium Scipionis_, on the calm exquisite
+delights of meditation and science, and on the littleness of all earthly
+things, when compared with immortality or the universe. “Quid porro,” says
+Scipio, in the most elevated tone of moral and intellectual grandeur—“quid
+porro aut præclarum putet in rebus humanis, qui hæc deorum regna
+perspexerit? aut diuturnum, qui cognoverit quid sit æternum? aut
+gloriosum, qui viderit quàm parva sit terra, primum universa, deinde ea
+pars ejus quam homines incolant, quamque nos in exiguâ ejus parte adfixi,
+plurimis ignotissimi gentibus, speremus tamen nostrum nomen volitare et
+vagari latissime? Agros, vero, et ædificia, et pecudes, et immensum
+argenti pondus atque auri, qui bona nec putare nec appellare soleat, quod
+earum rerum videatur ei, levis fructus, exiguus usus, incertus dominatus,
+sæpe etiam teterrimorum hominum immensa possessio. Quàm est hic fortunatus
+putandus, cui soli vere liceat omnia non Quiritium sed sapientium jure pro
+suis vindicare! nec civili nexo, sed communi lege naturæ, quæ vetat ullam
+rem esse cujusquam nisi ejus qui tractare et uti sciat: qui imperia
+consulatusque nostros in necessariis non in expetendis rebus muneris
+fungendi gratiâ subeundos, non præmiorum aut gloriæ causâ adpetendos
+putet: qui denique ut Africanum avum meum scribit Cato solitum esse
+dicere, possit idem de se prædicare, nunquam se plus agere, quàm nihil cùm
+ageret; nunquam minus solum esse, quàm cùm solus esset.
+
+“Quis enim putare vere potest plus egisse Dionysium tum cùm omnia moliendo
+eripuerit civibus suis libertatem, quàm ejus civem Archimedem, cùm istam
+ipsam Sphæram, nihil cùm agere videretur, effecerit? Quis autem non magis
+solos esse qui in foro turbâque quicum conloqui libeat non habeant, quam
+qui nullo arbitro vel secum ipsi loquantur, vel quasi doctissimorum
+hominum in concilio adsint cùm eorum inventis scriptisque se oblectent?
+Quis vero divitiorem quemquam putet, quàm eum cui nihil desit, quod quidem
+natura desideret? aut potentiorem quàm illum, qui omnia quæ expetat,
+consequatur? aut beatiorem quàm qui sit omni perturbatione animi
+liberatus?”
+
+Lælius, however, is no way moved by these sonorous arguments; and still
+persists in affirming, that the most important of all studies are those
+which relate to the _Republic_, and that it concerned them to inquire, not
+why two suns had appeared in heaven, but why, in the present
+circumstances, (alluding to the projects of the Gracchi,) there were two
+senates, and almost two peoples. In this state of things, therefore, and
+since they had now leisure, their fittest object would be to learn from
+Scipio what he deemed the best condition of a commonwealth. Scipio
+complies with this request, and begins with defining a republic; “Est
+igitur respublica res populi—populus autem non omnis hominum cœtus quoquo
+modo congregatus, sed cœtus multitudinis juris consensu.” In entering on
+the nature of what he had thus defined, he remounts to the origin of
+society, which he refers entirely to that social spirit which is one of
+the principles of our nature, and not to hostility, or fear, or compact. A
+people, when united, may be governed by _one_, by _several_, or by a
+_multitude_, any one of which simple forms may be tolerable if well
+administered, but they are liable to corruptions peculiar to themselves.
+Of these three simple forms, Scipio prefers the monarchical; and for this
+choice he gives his reasons, which are somewhat metaphysical and
+analogical. But though he more approves of a pure regal government than of
+the two other simple forms, he thinks that none of them are good, and that
+a perfect constitution must be compounded of the three. “Quod cùm ita sit,
+tribus primis generibus longe præstat, meâ sententiâ, regium; regio autem
+ipsi præstabit id quod erit æquatum et temperatum ex tribus optimis rerum
+publicarum modis. Placet enim esse quiddam in re publicâ præstans et
+regale; esse aliud auctoritate principum partum ac tributum; esse quasdam
+res servatas judicio voluntatique multitudinis. Hæc constitutio primum
+habet æqualitatem quamdam magnam, quâ carere diutius vix possunt liberi;
+deinde firmitudinem.”
+
+In this panegyric on a mixed constitution, Cicero has taken his idea of a
+perfect state from the Roman commonwealth—from its consuls, senate, and
+popular assemblies. Accordingly, Scipio proceeds to affirm, that of all
+constitutions which had ever existed, no one, either as to the
+distribution of its parts or discipline, was so perfect as that which had
+been established by their ancestors; and that, therefore, he will
+constantly have his eye on it as a model in all that he means to say
+concerning the best form of a state.
+
+This explains what was the chief scope of Cicero in his work _De
+Republica_—an eulogy on the Roman government, such as it was, or he
+supposed it to have been, in the early ages of the commonwealth. In the
+time of Cicero, when Rome was agitated by the plots of Catiline, and
+factions of Clodius, with the proscriptions of Sylla but just terminated,
+and the usurpation of Cæsar impending, the Roman constitution had become
+as ideal as the polity of Plato; and in its best times had never reached
+the perfection which Cicero attributes to it. But when a writer is
+disgusted with the present, and fearful for the future, he is ever ready
+to form an _Utopia_ of the past(467).
+
+In the _second_ book, which, like the first, is imperfect at the
+beginning, (though Mai seems to think that only a few words are wanting;)
+Scipio records a saying of Cato the Censor, that the constitution of Rome
+was superior to that of all other states, because _they_ had been modelled
+by single legislators, as Crete by Minos, and Sparta by Lycurgus, whereas
+the Roman commonwealth was the result of the gradually improved experience
+and wisdom of ages. “To borrow, therefore,” says he, “a word from Cato, I
+shall go back to the _origin_ of the Roman state; and show it in its
+birth, childhood, youth, and maturity—a plan which seems preferable to the
+delineation of an imaginary republic like that of Plato.”
+
+Scipio now begins with Romulus, whose birth, indeed, he seems to treat as
+a fable; but in the whole succeeding development of the Roman history, he,
+or, in other words, Cicero, exercises little criticism, and indulges in no
+scepticism. He admires the wisdom with which Romulus chose the site of his
+capital—not placing it in a maritime situation, where it would have been
+exposed to many dangers and disadvantages, but on a navigable river, with
+all the conveniences of the sea.—“Quî potuit igitur divinitus et
+utilitates complecti maritimas Romulus et vitia vitare? quàm quòd urbem
+perennis amnis et æquabilis et in mare late influentis posuit in ripâ, quo
+posset urbs et accipere ex mari quo egeret, et reddere quo redundaret:
+eodemque ut flumine res ad victum cultumque maxime necessarias non solum
+mari absorberet sed etiam advectas acciperet ex terrâ: ut mihi jam tum
+divinâsse ille videatur, hanc urbem sedem aliquando ut domum summo esse
+imperio præbituram: nam hanc rerum tantam potentiam non ferme facilius
+aliâ in parte Italiæ posita urbs tenere potuisset.”—In like manner he
+praises the sagacity of the succeeding rulers of the Roman state.
+“Faithful to his plan,” says M. Villemain, “of referring all to the Roman
+constitution, and of forming rather a history than a political theory,
+Cicero proceeds to examine, as it were chronologically, the state of Rome
+at the different epochs of its duration, beginning with its kings. This
+plan, if it produced any new light on a very dark subject, would have much
+more interest for us than ideas merely speculative. But Cicero scarcely
+deviates from the common traditions, which have often exercised the
+scepticism of the learned. He takes the Roman history nearly as we now
+have it, and his reflections seem to suppose no other facts than those
+which have been so eloquently recorded by Livy.” But although, for the
+sake of illustration, and in deference to common opinion, he argues on the
+events of early Roman history, as delivered by vulgar tradition, it is
+evident that, in his own belief, they were altogether uncertain; and if
+any new authority on that subject were wanting, Cicero’s might be added in
+favour of their total uncertainty; for Lælius thus interrupts his account
+of Ancus Martius—“Laudandus etiam iste rex—sed obscura est historia
+Romana;” and Scipio replies, “Ita est: sed temporum illorum tantum fere
+regum illustrata sunt nomina.”
+
+At the close of Scipio’s discourse, which is a perpetual panegyric on the
+successive governments of Rome, and, with exception of the above passage,
+an uncritical acquiescence in its common history, Tubero remarks, that
+Cicero had rather praised the Roman government, than examined the
+constitution of commonwealths in general, and that hitherto he had not
+explained by what discipline, manners, and laws, a state is to be
+constituted or preserved. Scipio replies, that this is to be a farther
+subject of discussion; and he seems now to have adopted a more
+metaphysical tone: But of the remainder of the book only a few fragments
+exist; from which, however, it appears, that a question was started, how
+far the exact observance of justice in a state is politic or necessary.
+This discussion, at the suggestion of Scipio, is suspended till the
+succeeding day(468).
+
+As the _third_ book of Cicero’s treatise began a second day’s colloquy, it
+was doubtless furnished with a proœmium, the greater part of which is now
+lost, as also a considerable portion of the commencement of the dialogue.
+Towards the conclusion of the preceding book, Scipio had touched on the
+subject, how far the observance of justice is useful to a state, and
+Philus had proposed that this topic should be treated more fully, as an
+opinion was prevalent, that policy occasionally required injustice.
+Previously to the discovery of Mai, we knew from St Augustine, _De
+Civitate Dei_, that in the third book of the treatise _De Republicâ_,
+Philus, as a disputant, undertook the cause of injustice, and was answered
+by Lælius. In the fragment of the third book, Philus excuses himself from
+becoming (so to speak) the devil’s advocate; but at length agrees to
+offer, not his own arguments on the subject, but those of Carneades, who,
+some years before, had one day pleaded the cause of justice at Rome, and
+next day overturning his own arguments, became the patron of injustice.
+Philus accordingly proceeds to contend, that if justice were something
+real, it would be everywhere the same, whereas, in one nation, that is
+reckoned equitable and holy, which in another is unjust and impious; and,
+in like manner, in the same city, what is just at one period, becomes
+unjust at another. In the palimpsest, these sophisms, which have been
+revived in modern times by Mandeville and others, are interrupted by
+frequent chasms in the MS. Lælius, as we learn from St Augustine, and from
+a passage in Aulus Gellius, was requested by all present to undertake the
+defence of justice; but his discourse, with the exception of a few
+sentences, is wholly wanting in the palimpsest. At the close he is highly
+complimented by Scipio, but a large _hiatus_ again intervenes. After this,
+Scipio is found contending, that wealth and power, Phidian statues, or the
+most magnificent public works, do not constitute a republic, but the _res
+populi_, the good of the whole, and not of any single governing portion of
+the state. He then concludes with affirming, that of all forms of
+government, the purely democratic is the worst, and next to that, an
+unmixed aristocracy.
+
+Of the _fourth_ book only one leaf remains in the palimpsest, the contents
+of which seem to confirm what we learn from other sources, that it treated
+of Education and Morals. It is particularly to be regretted that this book
+has disappeared. It is easy to supply abstract discussions about justice,
+democracy, and power, and, if they be not supplied, little injury is
+sustained; but the loss of details relating to manners and customs, from
+such a hand as that of Cicero, is irreparable. The fifth book is nearly as
+much mutilated as the fourth, and of the sixth not a fragment remains in
+the palimpsest, so that Mai’s discovery has added nothing to the beautiful
+extract from this book, entitled the _Somnium Scipionis_, preserved by
+Macrobius. The conclusion of the work _De Republicâ_, had turned on
+immortality of fame here, and eternity of existence elsewhere. The
+_Somnium Scipionis_ is intended to establish, under the form of a
+political fiction, the sublime dogma of the soul’s immortality, and was
+probably introduced at the conclusion of the work, for the purpose of
+adding the hopes and fears of future retribution to the other motives to
+virtuous exertion. In illustration of this sublime topic, Scipio relates
+that, in his youth, when he first served in Africa, he visited the court
+of Massinissa, the steady friend of the Romans, and particularly of the
+Cornelian family. During the feasts and entertainments of the day, the
+conversation turned on the words and actions of the first great Scipio.
+His adopted grandchild having retired to rest, the shade of the departed
+hero appeared to him in sleep, darkly foretold the future events of his
+life, and encouraged him to tread in the paths of patriotism and true
+glory, by announcing the reward provided in Heaven for those who have
+deserved well of their country.
+
+I have thought it proper to give this minute account of the treatise _De
+Republicâ_, for the sake of those who may not have had an opportunity of
+consulting Mai’s publication, and who may be curious to know somewhat of
+the value and extent of his discovery. On the whole, I suspect that the
+treatise will disappoint those whose expectations were high, especially if
+they thought to find in it much political or statistical information. It
+corresponds little to the idea that one would naturally form of a
+political work from the pen of Cicero—a distinguished statesman, always
+courted by the chiefs of political parties, and at one time himself at the
+head of the government of his country. But, on reflection, it will not
+appear surprising that we receive from this work so little insight into
+the doubtful and disputed points of Roman polity. Those questions, with
+regard to the manner in which the Senate was filled up—the force of
+degrees of the people, and the rank of the different jurisdictions, which
+in modern times have formed subjects of discussion, had not become
+problems in the time of Cicero. The great men whom he introduces in
+conversation together, understood each other on such topics, by a word or
+suggestion; and I am satisfied that those parts of the treatise _De
+Republicâ_, which are lost, contained as little that could contribute to
+the solution of such difficulties, as the portions that have been
+recovered.
+
+But though the work of Cicero will disappoint those who expect to find in
+it much political information, still, as in his other productions, every
+page exhibits a rich and glowing magnificence of style, ever subjected to
+the controul of a taste the most correct and pure. It contains, like all
+his writings, some passages of exquisite beauty, and everywhere breathes
+an exalted spirit of virtue and patriotism. The Latin language, so noble
+in itself, and dignified, assumes additional majesty in the periods of the
+Roman Consul, and adds an inexpressible beauty and loftiness to the
+natural sublimity of his sentiments. No writings, in fact, are so full of
+moral and intellectual grandeur as those of Cicero, none are more
+calculated to elevate and purify our nature—to inculcate the TU VERO
+ENITERE, in the path of knowledge and virtue, and to excite not merely a
+fond desire, or idle longing, but strenuous efforts after immortality.
+Indeed, the whole life of the Father of his Country was a noble
+fulfilment, and his sublime philosophic works are but an expansion of that
+golden precept, _tu vero enitere_, enjoined from on high, to his great
+descendant, by the Spirit of the first Africanus(469).
+
+About a century after the revival of letters, when mankind had at length
+despaired of any farther discovery of the philosophic writings of Cicero,
+the learned men of the age employed themselves in collecting the scattered
+fragments of his lost works, and arranging them according to the order of
+the books from which they had been extracted. Sigonius had thus united the
+detached fragments of the work _De Republicâ_, and he made a similar
+attempt to repair another lost treatise of Cicero, entitled _De
+Consolatione_. But in this instance he not merely collected the fragments,
+but connected them by sentences of his own composition. The work _De
+Consolatione_ was written by Cicero in the year 708, on occasion of the
+death of his much-loved Tullia, with the design of relieving his own mind,
+and consecrating to all posterity the virtues and memory of his
+daughter(470). In this treatise, he set out with the paradoxical
+propositions, that human life is a punishment, and that men are brought
+into the world only to pay the forfeit of their sins(471). Cicero chiefly
+followed Crantor the Academic(472), who had left a celebrated piece on the
+same topic; but he inserted whatever pleased him in any other author who
+had written on the subject. He illustrated his precepts, as he proceeded,
+by examples from Roman history, of eminent characters who had borne a
+similar loss with that which he had himself sustained, or other severe
+misfortunes, with remarkable constancy(473),—dwelling particularly on the
+domestic calamities of Q. Maximus, who buried a consular son; of Æmilius
+Paullus, who lost two sons in two days; and of M. Cato, who had been
+deprived of a son, who was Prætor-Elect(474). Sigonius pretended, that the
+patched-up treatise _De Consolatione_, which he gave to the public, was
+the lost work of Cicero, of which he had discovered a MS. The imposture
+succeeded for a considerable time, but was at length detected and pointed
+out by Riccoboni(475).
+
+Cicero also wrote a treatise in two books, addressed to Atticus, on the
+subject of Glory, which was the predominant and most conspicuous passion
+of his soul. It was composed in the year 710, while sailing along the
+delightful coast of the Campagna, on his voyage to Greece:—
+
+  “On as he moved along the level shore,
+  These temples, in their splendour eminent
+  Mid arcs, and obelisks, and domes, and towers,
+  Reflecting back the radiance of the west,
+  Well might he dream of GLORY(476)!”
+
+This treatise was extant in the 14th century. A copy had been presented to
+Petrarch, from his vast collection of books, by Raymond Soranzo, a
+Sicilian lawyer(477). Petrarch long preserved this precious volume with
+great care, and valued it highly. Unfortunately a man called Convenoli,
+who resided at Avignon, and who had formerly been his preceptor, begged
+and obtained the loan of it; and having afterwards fallen into indigent
+circumstances, pawned it for the relief of his necessities, to some
+unknown person, from whom Petrarch never could regain its possession. Two
+copies, however, were still extant in the subsequent century, one in a
+private library at Nuremburg, and another in that of a Venetian nobleman,
+Bernard Giustiniani, who, dying in 1489, bequeathed his books to a
+monastery of nuns, to whom Petrus Alcyonius was physician. Filelfo was
+accused, though on no good foundation, of having burned the Nuremburg
+copy, after inserting passages from it in his treatise _De Contemptu
+Mundi_(478). But the charge of destroying the original MS. left by
+Giustiniani to the nuns, has been urged against Alcyonius on better
+grounds, and with more success. Paulus Manutius, of whose printing-press
+Alcyonius had been at one time corrector, charged him with having availed
+himself of his free access to the library of the nuns, whose physician he
+was, to purloin the treatise _De Gloria_, and with having destroyed it, to
+conceal his plagiarisms, after inserting from it various passages in his
+dialogue _De Exilio_(479). The assertion of Manutius is founded only on
+the disappearance of the MS.,—the opportunities possessed by Alcyonius of
+appropriating it, and his own critical opinion of the dialogue _De
+Exilio_, in which he conceives that there are many passages composed in a
+style evincing a writer of talents, far superior to those of its nominal
+author. This accusation was repeated by Paulus Jovius and others(480).
+Mencken, in the preface to his edition of the dialogue _De Exilio_, has
+maintained the innocence of Alcyonius, and has related a conversation
+which he had with Bentley on the subject, in the course of which that
+great scholar declared, that he found nothing in the work of Alcyonius
+which could convict him of the imputed plagiarism(481). He has been
+defended at greater length by Tiraboschi, on the strong grounds that
+Giustiniani lived after the invention of printing, and that had he
+actually been in possession of Cicero’s treatise _De Gloriâ_, he would
+doubtless have published it—that it is not said to what monastery of nuns
+Giustiniani bequeathed this precious MS.—that the charge against Alcyonius
+was not advanced till after his death, although his dialogue _De Exilio_
+was first printed in 1522, and he survived till 1527; and, finally, that
+so great a proportion of it relates to modern events, that there are not
+more than a few pages which could possibly have been pilfered from Cicero,
+or any writer of his age(482). M. Bernardi, in a dissertation subjoined to
+a work above mentioned, _De la Republique_, has revived the accusation, at
+least to a certain extent, by quoting various passages from the work of
+Alcyonius, which are not well connected with the others, and which, being
+of a superior order of composition, may be conjectured to be those he had
+detached from the treatises of Cicero. On the whole, the question of the
+theft and plagiarism of Alcyonius still remains undecided, and will
+probably continue so till the discovery of some perfect copy of the tract
+_De Gloriâ_—an event rather to be earnestly desired than reasonably
+anticipated.
+
+A fourth lost work of Cicero, is his _Hortensius sive de Philosophia_.
+Besides the orator after whom it is named, Catulus, Lucullus, and Cicero
+himself, were speakers in the dialogue. In the first part, where
+Hortensius discourses, it was intended to exalt eloquence above
+philosophy. To his arguments Cicero replied, showing the service that
+philosophy rendered to eloquence, even in an imperfect state of the social
+progress, and its superior use in an improved condition of society, in
+which there should be no wrong, and consequently no tribunals of justice.
+All this appears from the account given of the _Hortensius_ by St
+Augustine, who has also quoted from it many beautiful passages—declaring,
+at the same time, that it was the perusal of this work which first
+inspired him with a love of wisdom.—“Viluit mihi repente omnis vana spes,
+et immortalitatem sapientiæ concupiscebam æstu cordis incredibili(483).”
+This dialogue continued to be preserved for a long period after the time
+of St Augustine, since it is cited as extant in his own age by the famous
+Roger Bacon(484).
+
+It was not till after the æra of Augustus, that works originally destined
+for the public assumed the name and form of letters. But several
+collections of epistles, written, during the period on which we are now
+engaged, to relatives or friends in private confidence, were afterwards
+extensively circulated. Those of Cornelia, the daughter of the elder
+Scipio Africanus, and mother of the Gracchi, addressed chiefly to her
+sons, were much celebrated; but the most ample collection now extant, is
+that of the Letters of Cicero.
+
+These may be divided into four parts,—1. The Epistolæ Familiares, or
+Miscellaneous Correspondence; 2. Those to Atticus; 3. To his brother
+Quintus; 4. To Brutus.
+
+The correspondence, usually entitled _Ad Familiares_, includes a period of
+about twenty years, commencing immediately after Cicero’s consulate, and
+ending a few months before his death. The letters which this collection
+comprehends, are so extremely miscellaneous, that it is impossible even to
+run over their contents. Previous to the battle of Pharsalia, it chiefly
+consists of epistles concerning the distribution of consular provinces,
+and the political intrigues relating to that constantly recurring subject
+of contention,—recommendatory letters sent with acquaintances going into
+the provinces—details to absent friends, with regard to the state of
+parties at Rome, particularly the designs of Pompey and Cæsar, and the
+factions of Milo and Clodius; and, finally, entertaining anecdotes
+concerning the most popular and fashionable amusements of the Capital.
+
+Subsequently to the battle of Pharsalia, and during the supremacy of
+Cæsar, the letters are principally addressed to the chiefs of the Pompeian
+party, who were at that time in banishment for their adherence to the same
+cause in which Cicero had been himself engaged. These epistles are chiefly
+occupied with consolatory reflections on the adverse circumstances in
+which they were placed, and accounts of his own exertions to obtain their
+recall. In the perusal of these letters, it is painful and humiliating to
+observe the gratification which Cicero evidently appears to have received
+at this period, from the attentions, not merely of Cæsar, but of his
+creatures and favourites, as Balbus, Hirtius, and Pansa.
+
+After the assassination of Cæsar, the correspondence for the most part
+relates to the affairs of the Republic, and is directed to the heads of
+the conspiracy, or to leading men in the state, as Lepidus and Asinius
+Pollio, who were then in the command of armies, and whom he anxiously
+exhorts to declare for the commonwealth, and stand forward in opposition
+to Antony.
+
+There are a good many letters inserted in this collection, addressed to
+Cicero by his friends. The greatest number are from his old client Cælius,
+who appears to have been an admirable gossip. They are written to Cicero,
+during his absence from Rome, in his government of Cilicia, and give him
+news of party politics—intelligence of remarkable cases tried in the
+Forum—and of the fashionable scandal of the day. The great object of
+Cælius seems to have been to obtain in return, the dedication of one of
+Cicero’s works, and a cargo of panthers from Asia, for his exhibition of
+games to the Roman people. Towards the conclusion, there are a good many
+letters from generals, who were at the head of armies in the provinces at
+the death of Cæsar, and continued their command during the war which the
+Senate waged against Antony. All of them, but particularly Asinius Pollio,
+and Lepidus, appear to have acted with consummate treachery and
+dissimulation towards Cicero and the Senate. On the whole, though the
+_Epistolæ Familiares_ were private letters, and though some private
+affairs are treated of in them, they chiefly relate to public concerns,
+comprehending, in particular, a very full history of Cicero’s government
+in Cilicia, the civil dissensions of Rome, and the war between Pompey and
+Cæsar. Seldom, however, do they display any flashes of that eloquence with
+which the orator was so richly endued; and no transaction, however
+important, elevated his style above the level of ordinary conversation.
+
+The _Epistolæ ad Atticum_, are also of great service for the History of
+Rome. “Whoever,” says Cornelius Nepos, “reads these letters of Cicero,
+will not want for a connected history of the times. So well does he
+describe the views of the leading men, the faults of generals, and the
+changes of parties in the state, that nothing is wanting for our
+information; and such was his sagacity, we are almost led to believe that
+it was a kind of divination; for Cicero not only foretold what afterwards
+happened in his own lifetime, but, like a prophet, predicted events which
+are now come to pass(485).” Along with this knowledge, we obtain more
+insight into Cicero’s private character, than from the former series of
+letters, where he is often disguised in the political mask of the great
+theatre on which he acted, and where many of his defects are concealed
+under the graceful folds of the _toga_. It was to Atticus that he most
+freely unbosomed his thoughts—more completely than even to Tullia,
+Terentia, or Tiro. Hence, while he evinces in these letters much affection
+for his family—ardent zeal for the interests of his friends—strong
+feelings of humanity and justice—warm gratitude to his benefactors, and
+devoted love to his country, he has not repressed his vanity, or concealed
+the faults of a mental organization too susceptible of every impression.
+His sensibility, indeed, was such, that it led him to think his
+misfortunes were peculiarly distinguished from those of all other men, and
+that neither himself nor the world could ever sufficiently deplore them:
+hence the querulous and plaintive tone which pervades the whole
+correspondence, and which, in the letters written during his exile,
+resembles more the wailings of the _Tristia_ of Ovid, than what might be
+expected from the first statesman, orator, and philosopher of the Roman
+Republic. In every page of them, too, we see traces of his inconsistencies
+and irresolution—his political, if not his personal timidity—his rash
+confidence in prosperity, his alarm in danger, his despondence in
+adversity—his too nice jealousies and delicate suspicions—his proneness to
+offence, and his unresisting compliance with those who had gained him by
+flattery, and hypocritical professions of attachment to the commonwealth.
+Atticus, it is clear, was a bad adviser for his fame, and perhaps for his
+ultimate safety; and to him may be in a great measure attributed that
+compromising conduct which has detracted so much from the dignity of his
+character. “You succeeded,” says Cicero, speaking of Cæsar and Pompey, “in
+persuading me to keep well with the one, because he had rendered me
+services, and with the other, because he possessed great power(486).”
+Again, “I followed your advice so punctually, that neither of them had a
+favourite beyond myself;” and after the war had actually broken out, “I
+take it very kind that you, in so friendly a manner, advise me to declare
+as little as possible for either party(487).” Such fatal counsels, it is
+evident, accorded too well with his own inclinations, and palliated,
+perhaps, to himself the weaknesses to which he gave way. These weaknesses
+of Cicero it would, indeed, be in vain to deny; but _his_ feelings are
+little to be envied who can think of them without regret, or speak of them
+without indulgence.
+
+It is these letters, however, which have handed down the remembrance of
+Atticus to posterity, and have rendered his name almost as universally
+known as that of his illustrious correspondent. “Nomen Attici perire,”
+says Seneca, “Ciceronis Epistolæ non sinunt. Nihil illi profuissent gener
+Agrippa, et Tiberius progener, et Drusus Cæsar pronepos. Inter tam magna
+nomina taceretur nisi Cicero illum applicuisset.”
+
+Perhaps the most interesting correspondence of Cicero is that with his
+brother Quintus, who was some years younger than the orator. He attained
+the dignity of Prætor in 693, and afterwards held a government in Asia as
+Pro-prætor for four years. He returned to Rome at the moment in which his
+brother was driven into exile; and for some time afterwards, was chiefly
+employed in exerting himself to obtain his recall. As Cæsar’s lieutenant,
+he served with credit in Gaul; but espoused the republican party at the
+breaking out of the civil war. He was pardoned, however, by Cæsar, and was
+slain by the blood-thirsty triumvirate established after his death.
+Quintus was a man of warm affections, and of some military talents, but of
+impatient and irritable temper. The orator had evidently a high opinion of
+his qualifications, and has introduced him as an interlocutor in the
+dialogues _De Legibus_ and _De Divinatione_.
+
+The correspondence with Quintus is divided into three books. The first
+letter in the collection, is one of the noblest productions of the kind
+which has ever been penned. It is addressed to Quintus on occasion of his
+government in Asia being prolonged for a third year. Availing himself of
+the rights of an elder brother, as well as of the authority derived from
+his superior dignity and talents, Cicero counsels and exhorts his brother
+concerning the due administration of his province, particularly with
+regard to the choice of his subordinate officers, and the degree of trust
+to be reposed in them. He earnestly reproves him, but with much fraternal
+tenderness and affection, for his proneness to resentment; and he
+concludes with a beautiful exhortation, to strive in all respects to merit
+the praise of his contemporaries, and bequeath to posterity an untainted
+name. The second letter transmits to Quintus an account of some complaints
+which Cicero had heard in Rome, with regard to his brother’s conduct in
+the administration of his government. The two following epistles, which
+conclude the first book, are written from Thessalonica, in the
+commencement of his exile. The first of these, beginning, “Mi frater, mi
+frater, mi frater,” written in a sad state of agitation and depression, is
+a fine specimen of eloquent and pathetic expostulation. It is full of
+strong and almost unbounded expressions of attachment, and exhibits much
+of that exaggeration, both in sentiment and language, in which Cicero
+indulged so frequently in his orations.
+
+The second and third books of letters, addressed to his brother in
+Sardinia and Gaul, give an interesting account of the state of public
+affairs during the years 697, 698, and part of 699, as also of his
+subsisting domestic relations during the same period.
+
+Along with his letters to Quintus, there is usually printed an epistle or
+memoir, which Quintus addressed to his brother when he stood candidate for
+the consulship, and which is entitled _De Petitione Consulatûs_. It gives
+advice with regard to the measures he should pursue to attain his object,
+particularly inculcating the best means to gain private friends, and
+acquire general popularity. But though professedly drawn up merely for the
+use of his brother, it appears to have been intended by the author as a
+guide, or manual, for all who might be placed in similar circumstances. It
+is written with considerable elegance, and perfect purity of style, and
+forms an important document for the history of the Roman republic, as it
+affords us a clearer insight than we can derive from any other work now
+extant, into the intrigues resorted to by the heads of parties to gain the
+suffrages of the people.
+
+The authenticity of the _Correspondence between Cicero and Brutus_, has
+formed the subject of a literary controversy, perhaps the most celebrated
+which has ever occurred, except that concerning the Epistles of Phalaris.
+
+It is quite ascertained, that a correspondence had been carried on between
+Cicero and Brutus; and a collection of the letters which had passed
+between them, extending to not less than eight books, existed for several
+ages after Cicero’s death. They were all written during the period which
+elapsed from the assassination of Cæsar to the tragical end of the orator,
+which comprehended about a year and a half; and it appears from the
+fragments of them, cited by Plutarch and the grammarians, that they
+chiefly related to the memorable political events of that important
+interval, and to a literary controversy which subsisted between Cicero and
+Brutus, with regard to the attributes of perfect eloquence(488).
+
+This collection is mentioned, and passages cited from it, by Quintilian,
+Plutarch, and even Nonius Marcellus(489), who lived about the year 400.
+After this, all trace of it is lost, till, in the fourteenth century, we
+find some of the disputed letters in the possession of Petrarch; and it
+has been conjectured that Petrarch himself was the discoverer of
+them(490). Eighteen of these letters, which were all that were then known,
+were published at Rome in 1470. Many years afterwards, five more, but in a
+mutilated state, were found in Germany, and these, in all subsequent
+editions, were printed along with the original eighteen. All the letters
+relate to the situation of public affairs after the death of Cæsar. They
+contain a good deal of recrimination: Brutus blaming Cicero for his
+dangerous elevation of Octavius, and conferring honours on him too
+profusely; Cicero censuring Brutus for having spared the life of Antony at
+the time of the conspiracy.
+
+Now the point in dispute is, If these twenty-three letters be parts of the
+original eight books of the genuine correspondence of Cicero and Brutus,
+so often cited by Plutarch, Quintilian, and Nonius; or if they be the
+forgery of some monk or sophist, during the dark ages which elapsed
+between the time of Nonius and Petrarch.
+
+From their very first appearance, the eighteen letters, which had come
+into the possession of Petrarch, passed among the learned for original
+epistles of Cicero and Brutus; and the five discovered in Germany, though
+doubted for a while, were soon received into the same rank with the
+others. Erasmus seems to have been the first who suspected the whole to be
+the declamatory composition of some rhetorician or sophist. They
+continued, however, to be cited by every other commentator, critic, and
+historian, as the unquestionable remains of the great author to whom they
+were ascribed. Middleton, in particular, in his Life of Cicero, freely
+referred to them as biographical authorities, along with the Familiar
+Epistles, and those to Atticus.
+
+Matters were in this situation, when Tunstall, in 1741, addressed a Latin
+Epistle to Middleton, written professedly to introduce a proposal for a
+new edition of Cicero’s letters to Atticus, and his brother Quintus. In
+the first part of this epistle, he attempted to retrieve the original
+readings of these authentic treasures of Ciceronian history, and asserted
+their genuine sense against the corruptions or false interpretations of
+them, which had led to many erroneous conclusions in Middleton’s Life of
+Cicero. In the second part, he denies the authenticity of the whole
+correspondence between Cicero and Brutus, which he alleges is the
+production of some sophist or scholiast of the middle ages, who probably
+wrote them, according to the practice of those days, as an exercise for
+his rhetorical talents, and with the view either of drawing up a
+supplement to the Epistles to Atticus, so as to carry on the history from
+the period at which they terminate, or to vindicate Cicero’s character
+from the imputation of rashness, in throwing too much power into the hands
+of Octavius. Tunstall farther thinks, that the leading subject of these
+letters was suggested to the sophist by a passage in Plutarch’s Life of
+Brutus, where it is mentioned that Brutus had remonstrated with Cicero,
+and complained of him to their mutual friend Atticus, for the court he
+paid to Octavius, which showed that his aim was not to procure liberty for
+his country, but a kind master to himself.
+
+Middleton soon afterwards published an English translation of the whole
+correspondence between Brutus and Cicero, with notes; and, in a prefatory
+dissertation, written with considerable and unprovoked asperity, he
+attempted to vindicate the authority of the epistles, and to answer the
+objections of Tunstall. His adversary replied in an immense English work,
+of more than 400 pages, entitled, “Observations on the present Collection
+of Epistles between Cicero and Brutus, representing several evident marks
+of Forgery in those Epistles, in answer to the late pretences of Dr
+Middleton: 1744.”
+
+It is difficult to give any sketch of the argumentative part of this famed
+controversy, as the merit of all such discussion consists in the extreme
+accuracy and minuteness of investigation. The main scope, however, of the
+objections, is thus generally exhibited by Tunstall in his Latin epistle.
+He declares, “that as he came fresh from the perusal of Cicero’s genuine
+letters, he perceived that those to Brutus wanted the beauty and
+copiousness of the Ciceronian diction—that the epistles, both of Brutus
+and Cicero, were drawn in the same style and manner of colouring, and
+trimmed up with so much art and diligence, that they seemed to proceed
+rather from scholastic subtlety and meditation, than from the genuine acts
+and affairs of life—that when, both before and after the date of the
+letters to Atticus, several epistles had been addressed from Brutus to
+Cicero, and from Cicero to Brutus, it was strange that those which
+preceded the letters to Atticus should have been lost, and those alone
+remain which appear to have been industriously designed for an epilogue to
+the Epistles to Atticus—that such reasons induced him to suspect, but on
+looking farther into the letters themselves, he discovered many
+absurdities in the sense, many improprieties in the language, many
+remarkable predictions of future events, both on Brutus’s side and
+Cicero’s; but what was most material, a great number of historical facts,
+not only quite new, but wholly altered, and some even apparently false,
+and contradictory to the genuine works of Cicero.”
+
+Such was the state of the controversy, as it stood between Tunstall and
+Middleton. In 1745, the year after Middleton had published his translation
+of the epistles, Markland engaged in this literary contest, and came
+forward in opposition to the authenticity of the letters, by publishing
+his “Remarks on the Epistles of Cicero to Brutus, and of Brutus to Cicero,
+in a Letter to a Friend.” The arguments of Tunstall had chiefly turned on
+historical inconsistencies—those of Markland principally hinge on phrases
+to be found in the letters, which are not Ciceronian, or even of pure
+Latinity.
+
+I must here close this long account of the writings of Cicero—of Cicero,
+distinguished as the Consul of the republic—as the father and saviour of
+his country—but not less distinguished as the orator, philosopher, and
+moralist of Rome.—“Salve primus omnium Parens Patriæ appellate,—primus in
+togâ triumphum linguæque lauream merite, et facundiæ, Latiarumque
+Literarum parens: atque (ut Dictator Cæsar, hostis quondam tuus, de te
+scripsit,) omnium triumphorum lauream adopte majorem; quanto plus est,
+ingenii Romani terminos in tantum promovisse, quàm imperii(491).”
+
+               ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
+
+In the former volume of this work, I had traced the progress of the
+language of the Romans, and treated of the different poets by whom it was
+adorned till the era of Augustus. I had chiefly occasion, in the course of
+that part of my inquiry, to compare the poetical productions of Rome with
+those of Greece, and to show that the Latin poetry of this early age,
+being modelled on that of Athens or Alexandria, had acquired an air of
+preparation and authorship, and appeared to have been written to obtain
+the cold approbation of the public, or smiles of a Patrician patron, while
+the native lines of the Grecian bards seem to be poured fourth like the
+Delphic oracles, because the god which inspired them was too great to be
+contained within the bosom. In the prose compositions of the Romans, which
+have been considered in the present volume, though the _exemplaria Græca_
+were still the models of style, we have not observed the same servility of
+imitation. The agricultural writers of Latium treated of a subject in a
+great measure foreign to the maritime feelings and commercial occupations
+of the Greeks; while, in the Latin historians, orators, and philosophers,
+we listen to a tone of practical utility, derived from the familiar
+acquaintance which their authors exercised with the affairs of life. The
+old Latin historians were for the most part themselves engaged in the
+affairs they related, and almost every oration of Cicero was actually
+delivered in the Senate or Forum. Among the Romans, philosophy was not, as
+it had been with many of the Greeks, an academic dream or speculation,
+which was substituted for the realities of life. In Rome, philosophic
+inquiries were chiefly prosecuted as supplying arguments and illustrations
+to the patron for his conflicts in the Forum, and as guiding the citizen
+in the discharge of his duties to the commonwealth. Those studies, in
+short, alone were valued, which, as it is beautifully expressed by Cicero,
+in the person of Lælius—“Efficiant ut usui civitati simus: id enim esse
+præclarissimum sapientiæ munus, maximumque virtutis documentum puto.”
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                APPENDIX.
+
+
+  “Some felt the silent stroke of mouldering age,
+  Some hostile fury, some religious rage:
+  Barbarian blindness, Christian zeal conspire,
+  And Papal piety, and Gothic fire.”
+                  POPE’S _Epistle to Addison_.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                APPENDIX.
+
+
+In order to be satisfied as to the authenticity of the works commonly
+called Classical, it is important to ascertain in what manner they were
+given to the public by their respective authors—to trace how they were
+preserved during the long night of the dark ages—and to point out by whom
+their perishing remains were first discovered at the return of light. Nor
+will it be uninteresting to follow up this sketch by an enumeration of the
+principal Editions of the Classics mentioned in the preceding pages, and
+of the best Translations of them which, from time to time, have appeared
+in the Italian, French, and English languages.
+
+The manuscripts of the Latin Classics, during the existence of the Roman
+republic and empire, may be divided into what have been called _notata_
+and _perscripta_. The former were those written by the author himself, or
+his learned slaves, in contractions or signs which stood for syllables and
+words; the latter, those which were fully transcribed in the ordinary
+characters by the _librarius_, who was employed by the _bibliopolæ_, or
+booksellers, to prepare the productions of an author for public sale.
+
+The books written in the hand of the authors were probably not very
+legible, at least if we may judge of others by Cicero. His brother Quintus
+had complained that he could not read his letters, and Cicero says in
+reply: “Scribis te meas literas superiores vix legere potuisse; hoc facio
+semper ut quicumque calamus in manus meas venerit, eo sic utar tamquam
+bono(492).”
+
+But the works,—at least the prose works,—of the Romans were seldom written
+out in the hand of the author, and were generally dictated by him to some
+slave or freedman instructed in penmanship. It is well known that many of
+the orations of Cicero, Cato, and their great rhetorical contemporaries,
+were taken down by short-hand writers stationed in the Senate or Forum.
+But even the works most carefully prepared in the closet were _notata_, in
+a similar manner, by slaves and freedmen. There was no part of his learned
+compositions on which Cicero took more pains, or about which his thoughts
+were more occupied(493), than the dedication of the _Academica_ to Varro,
+and even this he _dictated_ to his slave Spintharus, though he did so
+slowly, word by word, and not in whole sentences to Tiro, as was his
+practice in his other productions. “Male mihi sit,” says he in a letter to
+Atticus, “si umquam quidquam tam enitar. Ergo ne Tironi quidem dictavi,
+qui totas _periochas_ persequi solet, sed Spintharo syllabatim(494).”
+
+This practice of authors dictating their works created a necessity, or at
+least a conveniency, of writing with rapidity, and of employing
+contractions, or conventional marks, in almost every word.
+
+Accordingly, from the earliest periods of Roman literature, words were
+contracted, or were signified by notes, which sometimes stood for more
+than one letter, sometimes for syllables, and at other times for whole
+words. Funccius, who maintains that Adam was the first short-hand
+writer(495), has asserted, with more truth, that the Romans contracted
+their words from the remotest ages of the republic, and to a greater
+degree than any other ancient nation. Sometimes the abbreviations
+consisted merely in writing the initial letter instead of the whole word.
+Thus P. C. stood for Patres Conscripti; C. R., for Civis Romanus; S. N.
+L., for Socii Nominis Latini. This sort of contraction being employed in
+words frequently recurring, and which in one sense might be termed public,
+and being also universally recognized, would rarely produce any
+misapprehension or mistake. But frequently the abbreviations were much
+more complex, and the leading letters of words in less common use being
+_notata_, the contractions became of much more difficult and dubious
+interpretation. For example, _Meit._ expressed meminit; _Acus._, Acerbus;
+_Quit._, quærit; _Ror._, Rhetor.
+
+For the sake, however, of yet greater expedition in writing, and perhaps,
+in some few instances for the purpose of secrecy, signs or marks, which
+could be currently made with one dash or scratch with the _stylus_, and
+without lifting or turning it, came to be employed, instead of those
+letters which were themselves the abbreviations of words. Some writers
+have supposed that these signs were entirely arbitrary(496), whilst others
+have, with more probability, maintained that their forms can be resolved
+or analysed into the figures, or parts of the figures, of the letters
+themselves which they were intended to represent, though they have often
+departed far from the shape of the original characters(497). Ennius is
+said to have invented 1100 of these signs(498), which he no doubt employed
+in his multifarious compositions. Others came into gradual use in the
+manual operation of writing with rapidity to dictation. Tiro, the
+favourite freedman of Cicero, greatly increased the number, and brought
+this sort of tachygraphy to its greatest perfection among the Romans. In
+consequence of this fashion of authors dictating their works, expedition
+came to be considered of the utmost importance; it was regarded as the
+chief accomplishment of an amanuensis; and he alone was considered as
+perfect in his art, whose pen could equal the rapidity of utterance:
+
+  Hic et scriptor erit felix, cui litera verbum est,
+  Quique notis linguam superet, cursumque loquentis,
+  Excipiens longas per nova compendia voces(499).
+
+These lines were written by a poet of the age of Augustus, and it appears
+from Martial(500), Ausonius(501), and Prudentius, that this system of
+dictation by the author, and rapid notation by his amanuensis, continued
+in practice during the later ages of the empire.
+
+Such was the mode in which most of the writings of the ancients came
+originally from their authors, and were delivered to those friends who
+were desirous to possess copies, or to the booksellers to be _perscripta_,
+or transcribed, for publication.
+
+There exists sufficient proof of the high estimation in which accurate
+transcriptions of the works of their own writers were held by the Romans.
+The correctness of printing, however, could not be expected. In the
+original notation, some mistakes might probably be made from carelessness
+of pronunciation in the author who dictated, and haste in his amanuensis;
+but the great source of errors in MSS. was the blunders made by the
+_librarius_ in copying out from the noted exemplar. There was the greatest
+ambiguity and doubt in the interpretation, both of words contracted in the
+ordinary character and in the artificial signs. Sometimes the same word
+was expressed by different letters; thus MR. MT. MTR. all expressed
+_Mater_. Sometimes, on the other hand, the same set of letters expressed
+different words; for instance, ACT. signified _Actor_, _Auctoritas_, and
+_Hactenus_. The collocation of the letters was often inverted from the
+order in which they stood in the word when fully expressed; and frequently
+one letter had not merely its own power, but that of several others. Thus
+AMO. signified _animo_, because M had there not only its own force, but,
+as its shape in some measure announces, the power of _ni_ also. Matters
+were still worse, when not only abbreviations, but signs had been resorted
+to. These were variously employed by different writers, and were also
+differently interpreted by transcribers. Some of these signs were
+extremely similar in form: it was scarcely possible to discriminate the
+sign which denoted the syllable _ab_ from that which expressed the
+syllable _um_; and the signs of the syllables _is_ and _it_ were nearly
+undistinguishable; while _ad_ and _at_ were precisely the same. The mark
+which expressed the word _talis_, being a little more sloped or inclined,
+expressed _qualis_; and the difference in the Tironian signs which stood
+for the complete words _Ager_ and _Amicus_, was scarcely perceptible(502).
+
+The ancient Latin writers also employed a number of marks to denote the
+accents of words, and the quantities of syllables. The oldest writers, as
+Livius Andronicus and Nævius, always placed two vowels when a syllable was
+to be pronounced long(503). Attius, the great tragic author, was the first
+to relinquish this usage; and after his time, in conformity to the new
+practice which he had adopted, a certain mark was placed over the long
+vowels. When this custom also (which is stigmatised by Quintilian as
+_ineptissimus_(504)) fell into disuse, the mark was frequently
+misunderstood, and Funccius has given several examples of corruptions and
+false readings from the mistake of transcribers, who supposed that it was
+intended to express an _m_, an _n_, or other letters(505).
+
+In addition to all this, little attention was paid to the separation of
+words and sentences, and the art of punctuation was but imperfectly
+understood.
+
+Finally, and above all, the orthography of Latin was extremely fluctuating
+and uncertain. We have seen, in an early part of this work, how it varied
+in the time of the republic, and it, in fact, never became fixed. Mai
+talks repeatedly, in his preface, of the strange inconsistencies of
+spelling in the Codex, which contained Cicero’s work _De Republica_; and
+Cassiodorus, who of all his contemporaries chiefly cultivated literature
+during the reign of the barbarians in Italy, often regrets that the
+ancient Romans had left their orthography encumbered with the utmost
+difficulties. “Orthographia,” says he, “apud Græcos plerumque sine
+ambiguitate probatur expressa; inter Latinos vero sub ardua difficultate
+relicta monstratur; unde etiam modo studium magnum lectoris inquiret.”
+
+In consequence of this dictation to short-hand, and this uncertain
+orthography, we find that the corruption of the classics had begun at a
+very early period. The ninth Satire of Lucilius was directed against the
+ridiculous blunders of transcribers, and contained rules for greater
+correctness. Cicero, in his letters to his brother Quintus, bitterly
+complains of the errors of copyists,—“De Latinis vero, quo me vertam,
+nescio; ita mendose et scribuntur, et veneunt(506).” Strabo says, that in
+his time booksellers employed ignorant transcribers, who neglected to
+compare what they wrote with the exemplar; which, he adds, has occurred in
+many works, copied for the purpose of being sold, both at Rome and
+Alexandria(507). Martial, too, thus cautions his reader against the
+mistakes occasioned by the inaccuracy and haste of the venders of books,
+and the transcribers whom they employed:
+
+  “Si qua videbuntur chartis tibi, lector, in istis,
+    Sive obscura nimis, sive Latina parum;
+  Non meus est error: nocuit Librarius illis,
+    Dum properat versus annumerare tibi(508).”
+
+Aulus Gellius repeatedly complains of the inaccuracy of copies in his
+time: We learn from him, that the writings of the greatest Classics were
+already corrupted and falsified, not only by the casual errors of
+copyists, but by the deliberate perversions of critics, who boldly altered
+everything that was too elegant or poetical for their own taste and
+understanding(509). To the numerous corruptions in the text of Sallust he
+particularly refers(510).
+
+The practice, too, of abridging larger works, particularly histories, and
+extracting from them, was injurious to the preservation of MSS. This
+practice, occasioned by the scarcity of paper, began as early as the time
+of Brutus, who extracted even from the meagre annals of his country. These
+excerpts seldom compensated for the originals, but made them be neglected,
+and in consequence they were lost.
+
+It seems also probable, that the destruction of the treasures of classical
+literature commenced at a very early period. Varro’s library, which was
+the most extensive private collection of books in Italy, was ruined and
+dispersed when his villa was occupied by Antony(511); and some of his own
+treatises, as that addressed to Pompey on the duties of the Consulship,
+were irretrievably lost. Previous to the art of printing, books, in
+consequence of their great scarcity and value, were chiefly heaped up in
+public libraries. Several of these were consumed in the fire, by which so
+many temples were burned to the ground in the reign of Nero(512),
+particularly the library in the temple of Apollo, on the Palatine Hill,
+which was founded by Augustus, and contained all the Roman poets and
+historians previous to his age. This literary establishment having been
+restored as far as was possible by Domitian, suffered a second time by the
+flames; and the extensive library of the Capitol perished in a fire during
+the reign of Commodus(513). When it is considered, that at these periods
+the copies of Latin works were few, and chiefly confined within the walls
+of Rome, some notion may be formed of the extent of the loss sustained by
+these successive conflagrations.
+
+From the portentous æra of the death of Pertinax, the brief reign of each
+succeeding emperor ended in assassination, civil war, and revolution. The
+imperial throne was filled by soldiers of fortune, who came like shadows,
+and like shadows departed. Rome at length ceased to be the fixed and
+habitual residence of her sovereigns, who were now generally employed at a
+distance in the field, in repelling foreign enemies, or repressing
+usurpers. While it is certain, that during this period many of the finest
+monuments of the arts were destroyed, and some of the most splendid works
+of architecture defaced, it can hardly be supposed that the frail texture
+of the parchment, or papyrus, should have resisted the stroke of sudden
+ruin, or the gradual mouldering of neglect.
+
+But the chief destruction took place after the removal of the seat of
+empire by Constantine. The loss of so many classical works subsequently to
+that æra, has been attributed chiefly to the irruption of the northern
+barbarians; but it was fully as much owing to the blind zeal of the early
+Christians. Many of the public libraries were placed in temples, and hence
+were the more exposed to the fury of the proselytes to the new faith. This
+devastation began in Italy in the fourth century, before the barbarians
+had penetrated to the heart of the empire; and, in the same century, if
+Sulpicius Severus may be credited, Bishop Martin undertook a crusade
+against the temples of the Gauls(514). St Augustine, St Jerome, and
+Lactantius, indeed, knew the classics well; but they considered them as a
+sort of forbidden fruit: and St Jerome, as he himself informs us, was
+whipped by an angel for perusing Plautus and Cicero(515). The following or
+fifth century, was distinguished by the first capture of Rome, and its
+successive devastations by Alaric, Genseric, and Attila. In the latter
+part of the century, Milan, too, was plundered; which, next to Rome, was
+the chief repository of books in Italy.
+
+Monachism, which, in its first institution, particularly in the east, had
+been so destructive of literary works, became, when more advanced in its
+progress, a chief cause of their preservation. When the monks were at
+length united, in a species of civil union, under the fixed rules of St
+Benedict, in the beginning of the sixth century, the institution
+contributed, if not to the diffusion of literature, at least to the
+preservation of literary works. There was no prohibition in the ordinances
+of St Benedict against the reading of classical writings, as in those of
+St Isidore: and the consequence was, that wherever any abbot, or even
+monk, had a taste for letters, books were introduced into the convent. We
+have a remarkable example of this in the instance of Cassiodorus, whose
+genius, learning, and virtue, shed a lustre on one of the darkest periods
+of Italian history. After his pre-eminent services as minister of state
+during the reign of Theodoric, and regency of Amalasuntha, he retired, in
+the year 540, when he had reached the age of seventy, to the monastery of
+Monte Casino, situated in a most delightful spot, near the place of his
+birth, in Calabria. There he became as serviceable to literature as he had
+formerly been to the state; and the convent to which he betook himself
+deserves to be first mentioned in any future history of the preservation
+of the Classics. Before his entrance into it, he possessed an extensive
+library, with which he enriched the cloister(516); and subsequently
+enlarged it by a collection of MSS., which he caused to be brought to him
+from various quarters of Italy. There is still extant his order to a monk
+to procure for him Albinus’ treatise on Music; which shows, that his
+collection was not entirely confined to theological treatises: while his
+work _De Artibus ac Disciplinis liberalium Literarum_, is an ample
+testimony of his classical learning, and of the value which he attached to
+it. His library contained, at least, Ennius, Terence, Lucretius, Varro,
+Cicero, and Sallust(517). The monks of his convent were excited by him to
+the transcription of MSS.; and, in his work _De Orthographia_, he did not
+disdain to give minute directions for copying with facility and
+correctness.
+
+Thus, in collecting an ample library—in diffusing copies of ancient
+MSS.—in verbal instructions, written lectures, and the composition of
+voluminous works—he closed, in the service of religion and learning, a
+long and meritorious life.
+
+The example of Cassiodorus was followed in other convents. About half a
+century after his death, Columbanus founded a monastery of Benedictines at
+Bobbio, a town situated among the northern Apennines. This religious
+society, as Tiraboschi informs us, was remarkable, not only for the
+sanctity of its manners, but the cultivation of literature. It was
+fortunate that receptacles for books had now been thus provided, as
+otherwise the treasures of classical literature in Italy would, in all
+likelihood, have perished during the wars of Belisarius, and Narses, and
+the invasion of Totila. It is in the age of Cassiodorus,—that is, the
+beginning and middle of the sixth century,—that Tiraboschi places the
+serious and systematic commencement of the transcription of the
+classics(518). He mentions the names of some of the most eminent copyists;
+but a fuller list had been previously furnished by Fabricius(519).
+
+In Gregory the Great, who was Pope at the end of the sixth and beginning
+of the seventh century, literature, according to popular belief, found an
+enemy in the west, as fatal to its interests as the Caliph Omar had been
+in the east. This pontiff was accused of burning a classical library, and
+also some valuable works, which had replaced those formerly consumed in
+the Palatine library. John of Salisbury is the sole authority for this
+charge; and even he, who lived six centuries after the age of Gregory,
+only mentions it as a tradition and report: “Fertur Beatus Gregorius
+bibliothecam combussisse gentilem, quo divinæ paginæ gratior esset locus,
+et major auctoritas, et diligentia studiosior(520);” and again, “Ut
+traditur a majoribus, incendio dedit probatæ lectionis scripta, Palatinus
+quæcunque tenebat Apollo(521).” Cardan informs us, that Gregory also
+caused the plays of Nævius, Ennius, and Afranius, to be burned. That he
+suppressed the works of Cicero, rests on the authority of a passage in an
+edict published by Louis XI., dated 1473, and quoted by Lyron in his
+_Singularitéz Historiques_(522). St Antonius, who was Archbishop of
+Florence in the middle of the fifteenth century, is cited by Vossius as
+the most ancient author who has asserted that he burned the decades of
+Livy(523). These charges have been strenuously supported by Brucker(524),
+while Tiraboschi, on the other hand, has endeavoured to vindicate the
+memory of the pontiff from all such aspersions(525). Bayle has adopted a
+prudent neutrality(526). Dendina(527) and Ginguené(528), the most recent
+authors who have touched on the subject, seem to consider the question,
+after all that has been written on it, as still doubtful, and not likely
+to receive any farther elucidation. It appears certain, that Gregory
+disliked classical, or profane literature, on account of the oracles,
+idolatry, and rites, with which it is associated, and that he prohibited
+its study by the clergy(529);—whence may, perhaps, have originated the
+reports of his wilfully destroying the then surviving libraries and books
+of Rome.
+
+During the course of the two centuries which followed the death of
+Gregory, Italy was divided between the Greeks and Lombards, and was torn
+by spiritual dissensions. The most numerous and barbarous swarm which had
+yet crossed the Alps was the Lombards, who descended on Italy, under their
+king, Alboinus, in 568, immediately after the death of Narses. It was no
+longer a tribe or army by which Italy was invaded; but a whole nation of
+old men, women, and children, covered its plains. This ignorant and
+ferocious race spread themselves from the Alps to Rome during the seventh
+and eighth centuries. And although Rome itself escaped the Lombard
+dominion, the horrors of a perpetual siege can alone convey an adequate
+idea of its distressed situation. The feuds of the Lombard chiefs, their
+wars with the Greeks, who still remained masters of Rome, and at length
+with the Franks, (all which contests were marked with fire and massacre,)
+made a desert of the Peninsular garden(530). Hitherto the superstitious
+feelings of the northern hordes had inspired them with some degree of
+respect for the sacerdotal order which they found established in Italy.
+Reverence for the person of the priest had extended itself to the security
+of his property, and while the palace and castle were wrapt in flames, the
+convent escaped sacrilege. But the Lombards extended their fury to objects
+which their rude predecessors had generally respected; and learning was
+now attacked in her most vulnerable part. Amid the general destruction,
+the monasteries and their libraries were no longer spared; and with
+others, that of Monte Casino, one of the most valuable and extensive in
+Italy, was plundered by the Lombards(531). Some books preserved in the
+sack of the libraries were carried back by these invaders to their native
+country, and a few were saved by monks, who sought refuge in other
+kingdoms, which accounts for the number of classical MSS. subsequently
+discovered in France and Germany(532).
+
+Amid the ruin of taste and letters in these ages, it is probable that but
+few new copies were made from the MSS. then extant. Some of the classics,
+however, were still spared, and remained in the monastic libraries.
+Anspert, who was Abbot of Beneventum, in the eighth century, declares that
+he had never studied Homer, Cicero, or Virgil, which implies, that they
+were still preserved, and accessible to his perusal(533).
+
+The division of Italy between the Lombards and Greeks continued till the
+end of the eighth century, when Charlemagne put an end to the kingdom of
+the former, and founded his empire. Whether this monarch himself had any
+pretensions to the character of a scholar, is more than doubtful; but
+whether he possessed learning or not, he was a generous patron of those
+who did. He assembled round his court such persons as were most
+distinguished for talents and erudition; he established schools and
+pensioned scholars; and he founded also a species of Academy, of which
+Alcuin was the head, and in which every one adopted a scriptural or
+classic appellation. This tended to multiply the MSS. of the classics, and
+many of them found a place in the imperial library mentioned by Eginhard.
+Charlemagne also established the monastery of Fulda, and, in consequence,
+copies of these MSS. found their way to Germany in the beginning of the
+ninth century(534). The more recent Latin writers, as Boethius, Macrobius,
+and Capella, were chiefly popular in his age; but Virgil, Cicero, and
+Livy, were not unknown. Alcuin’s poetical account of the library at York,
+founded by Archbishop Egbert, and of which he had been the first
+librarian, affords us some notion of the usual contents of the libraries
+at that time.—
+
+  “Illic invenies veterum vestigia patrum;
+  Quicquid habet pro se Latio Romanus in orbe,
+  Græcia vel quicquid transmisit clara Latinis.”
+
+Then, after enumerating the works of all the Fathers which had a place in
+the library, he proceeds with his catalogue.—
+
+  “Historici veteres, Pompeius, Plinius, ipse
+  Acer Aristoteles rhetor, atque Tullius ingens;
+  Quid quoque Sedulius, vel quid canit ipse Juvencus,
+  Alcuinus, et Clemens Prosper, Paulinus orator;
+  Quid Fortunatus vel quid Lactantius edunt.
+  Quæ Maro Virgilius, Statius, Lucanus et auctor,
+  Artis grammaticæ vel quid scripsere magistri.”
+
+But though there were libraries in other countries, Italy always contained
+the greatest number of classical MSS. In the ninth century, Lupus, who was
+educated at Fulda, and afterwards became Abbot of Ferrieres, a monastery
+in the Orleanois, requested Pope Benedict III. to send him Cicero _de
+Oratore_ and Quintilian, of both of which he possessed parts, but had
+neither of them complete(535); and in another letter he begs from Italy a
+copy of Suetonius(536). The series of his letters gives us a favourable
+impression of the state of profane literature in his time. In his very
+first letter to Einhart, who had been his preceptor, he quotes Horace and
+the Tusculan Questions. Virgil is repeatedly cited in the course of his
+epistles, and the lines of Catullus are familiarly referred to as
+authorities for the proper quantities of syllables. Lupus did not confine
+his care to the mere transcription of MSS. He bestowed much pains on the
+rectification of the texts, as is evinced by his letter to Ansbald, Abbot
+of Prum, where he acknowledges having received from him a copy of the
+epistles of Cicero, which would enable him to correct the MSS. of them
+which he himself possessed(537).
+
+It was a rule in convents, that those who embraced the monasteric life
+should employ some hours each day in manual labour; but as all were not
+fit for those occupations which require much corporeal exertion, many of
+the monks fulfilled their tasks by copying MSS. Transcription thus became
+a favourite exercise in the ninth century, and was much encouraged by the
+Abbots(538). In every great convent there was an apartment called the
+_Scriptorium_, in which writers were employed in transcribing such books
+as were deemed proper for the library. The heads of monasteries borrowed
+their classics from each other, and, having copied, returned them(539).—By
+this means, books were wonderfully multiplied. Libraries became the
+constant appendages of cloisters, and in Italy existed nowhere else. We do
+not hear, during this period, of either royal or private libraries. There
+was little information among the priests or parochial clergy, and almost
+every man of learning was a member of a convent.
+
+But while MSS. thus increased in the monasteries, there were, at the same
+time, during this century, many counteracting causes, which rendered them
+more scarce than they would otherwise have been. During the Norman
+invasion, the convents were the chief objects of plunder. From the time,
+too, of the conquest of Alexandria by the Saracens, in the seventh
+century, when the Egyptian papyrus almost ceased to be imported into
+Europe, till the close of the tenth, when the art of making paper from
+cotton rags seems to have been introduced, there were no materials for
+writing except parchment, a substance too expensive to be readily spared
+for mere purposes of literature(540). The scarcity of paper, too, not only
+prevented the increase of classical MSS., but occasioned the loss of some
+which were then in existence, from the characters having been deleted, in
+order to make way for a more favourite production. The monkish scribes
+were accustomed to peel off the surface of parchment MSS., or to
+obliterate the ink by a chemical process, for the purpose of fitting them
+to receive the works of some Christian author; so that, by a singular and
+fatal metamorphosis, a classic was frequently translated into a vapid
+homily or monastic legend. That many valuable works of antiquity perished
+in this way, is evinced by the number of MSS. which have been discovered,
+evidently written on erased parchments. Thus the fragments of Cicero’s
+Orations, lately found in the Ambrosian library, had been partly
+obliterated, to make room for the works of Sedulius, and the Acts of the
+Council of Chalcedon; and Cicero’s treatise _de Republica_ had been
+effaced, in order to receive a commentary of St Augustine on the Psalms.
+
+The tenth century has generally been accounted the age of deepest darkness
+in the west of Europe. During its course, Italy was united by Otho I. with
+the German empire, and was torn by civil dissensions. Muratori gives a
+detailed account of the plundering of Italian convents, which was the
+consequence of these commotions, and of the irruption of the Huns in
+899(541). Still, however, Italy continued to be the great depository of
+classical MSS.; and in that country they were occasionally sought with the
+utmost avidity. Gerbert, who became Pope in the last year of the tenth
+century, by name of Silvester II., spared neither pains nor expense in
+procuring transcriptions of MSS. This extraordinary man, impelled by a
+thirst of science, had left his home and country at an early period of
+life: He had visited various nations of Europe, but it was in Spain, then
+partly subject to the Arabs, that he had chiefly obtained an opportunity
+of gratifying his mathematical talent, and desire of general information.
+Being no less ready to communicate than eager to acquire learning, he
+founded a school on his return to Italy, and greatly increased the library
+at Bobbio, in Lombardy, to the abbacy of which he had been promoted. While
+Archbishop of Rheims, in France, that kingdom experienced the effects of
+his enlightened zeal. During his papacy, obtained for him by his pupil
+Otho III., he persevered in his love of learning. In his generosity to
+scholars, and his expenditure of wealth for the employment of copyists, as
+well as for exploring the repositories in which the mouldering relics of
+ancient learning were yet to be found, we trace a liberality, bordering on
+profusion.—“Nosti,” says he, in one of his epistles to the monk Rainaldo,
+“quanto studio librorum exemplaria undique conquiram; nosti quot
+scriptores in urbibus, aut in agris Italiæ passim habeantur. Age ergo, et
+te solo conscio, ex tuis sumptibus fac ut mihi scribantur Manilius de
+Astronomia, et Victorinus. Spondeo tibi, et certum teneo quod, quicquid
+erogaveris, cumulatim remittam(542).” Having by this means exhausted
+Italy, Silvester directed his researches to countries beyond the Alps, as
+we perceive from his letter to Egbert, Abbot of Tours.—“Cui rei preparandæ
+bibliothecam assidue comparo; et sicut Romæ dudum, et in aliis partibus
+Italiæ, in Germanià quoque, et Belgicà, scriptores auctorumque exemplaria
+multitudine nummorum redemi; adjutus benevolentia et studio amicorum
+comprovincialium: sic identidem apud vos per vos fieri sinite ut exorem.
+Quos scribi velimus, in fine epistolæ designabimus(543).” This list,
+however, is not printed in any of the editions of Gerbert’s Letters, which
+I have had an opportunity of consulting.
+
+It thus appears that there were zealous researches for the classics, and
+successful discoveries of them, long before the age of Poggio, or even of
+Petrarch; but so little intercourse existed among different countries, and
+the monks had so little acquaintance with the treasures of their own
+libraries, that a classical author might be considered as lost in Italy,
+though familiar to a few learned men, and still lurking in many of the
+convents.
+
+Gerbert, previous to his elevation to the Pontificate, had, as already
+mentioned, been Abbot of Bobbio; and the catalogue which Muratori has
+given of the library in that convent, may be taken as an example of the
+description and extent of the classical treasures contained in the best
+monastic libraries of the tenth century. While the collection, no doubt,
+chiefly consists of the works of the saints and fathers, we find Persius,
+Valerius Flaccus, and Juvenal, contained in one volume. There are also
+enumerated in the list Cicero’s Topica, and his Catilinarian orations,
+Martial, parts of Ausonius and Pliny, the first book of Lucretius, four
+books of Claudian, the same number of Lucan, and two of Ovid(544). The
+monastery of Monte Casino, which was the retreat, as we have seen, of
+Cassiodorus, was distinguished about the same period for its classical
+library.—“The monks of Casino, in Italy,” observes Warton, “were
+distinguished before the year 1000, not only for their knowledge of the
+sciences, but their attention to polite learning, and an acquaintance with
+the classics. Their learned Abbot, Desiderius, collected the best of the
+Roman writers. This fraternity not only composed learned treatises on
+music, logic, astronomy, and the Vitruvian architecture, but likewise
+employed a portion of their time in transcribing Tacitus, Jornandes,
+Ovid’s Fasti, Cicero, Seneca, Donatus the grammarian, Virgil, Theocritus,
+and Homer.”
+
+During the eleventh century, the Benedictines having excited scandal by
+their opulence and luxury, the Carthusian and Cistertian orders attracted
+notice and admiration, by a self-denying austerity; but they valued
+themselves not less than the Benedictines, on the elegance of their
+classical transcriptions; and about the same period, translations from the
+Classics into the _Lingua volgare_, first commenced in Italy.
+
+At the end of the eleventh century, the Crusades began; and during the
+whole course of the twelfth century, they occupied the public mind, to the
+exclusion of almost every other object or pursuit. Schools and convents
+were affected with this religious and military mania: All sedentary
+occupations were suspended, and a mark of reproach was affixed to every
+undertaking which did not promote the contagion of the times.
+
+About the middle of the thirteenth century, and after the death of the
+Emperor Frederic II., Italy was for the first time divided into a number
+of petty sovereignties, unconnected by any system of general union, except
+the nominal allegiance still due to the Emperor. This separation, while it
+excited rivalry in arms, also created some degree of emulation in
+learning. Many Universities were established for the study of theology and
+the exercise of scholastic disputation; and though the classics were not
+publicly diffused, they existed within the walls of the convent, and were
+well known to the learned men of the period. Brunetto Latini, the teacher
+of Dante, and author of the _Tesoro_, translated into Italian several of
+Cicero’s orations, some parts of his rhetorical works, and considerable
+portions of Sallust(545). Dante, in his _Amoroso Convito_, familiarly
+quotes Livy, Virgil, and Cicero _de Officiis_; and Mehus mentions various
+translations of Seneca, Ovid, and Virgil, which had been executed in the
+age of Dante, and which he had seen in MSS. in the different libraries of
+Italy(546).
+
+It was Petrarch, however, who, in the fourteenth century, led the way in
+drawing forth the classics from the dungeons where they had been hitherto
+immured, and holding up their light and glory to the eyes of men. While
+enjoying the reputation of having perfected the most melodious and
+poetical language of Europe, Petrarch has acquired a still higher title to
+fame, by his successful exertions in rousing his country from a slumber of
+ignorance which threatened to be eternal. In his earliest youth, instead
+of the dry and dismal works which at that time formed the general reading,
+he applied himself to the reading of Virgil and Cicero; and when he first
+commenced his epistolary correspondence, he strongly expressed his wish
+that their fame should prevail over the authority of Aristotle and his
+commentators; and declared his belief of the high advantages the world
+would enjoy if the monkish philosophy should give place to classical
+literature. Petrarch, as is evinced by his letters, was the most assiduous
+recoverer and restorer of ancient MSS. that had yet existed. He was an
+enthusiast in this as he was in every thing else that merited
+enthusiasm—love, friendship, glory, patriotism, and religion. He never
+passed an old convent without searching its library, or knew of a friend
+travelling into those quarters where he supposed books to be concealed,
+without entreaties to procure for him some classical MS. It is evident
+that he came just in time to preserve from total ruin many of the
+mouldering remains of classical antiquity, and to excite among his
+countrymen a desire for the preservation of those treasures when its
+gratification was on the very eve of being rendered for ever
+impracticable. He had seen, in his youth, several of Cicero’s now lost
+treatises, and Varro’s great work _Rerum Divinarum et Humanarum_(547),
+which has forever disappeared from the world; and it is probable that had
+not some one, endued with his ardent love of letters, and indefatigable
+research, arisen, many similar works which we now enjoy, would soon have
+sunk into a like oblivion.
+
+About the same period, Boccaccio also collected several Latin MSS., and
+copied such as he could not purchase. He transcribed so many of the Latin
+poets, orators, and historians, that it would appear surprising had a
+copyist by profession performed so much. In a journey to Monte Casino, a
+place generally considered as remarkably rich in MSS., he was both
+astonished and afflicted to find the library exiled from the monastery
+into a barn, which was accessible only by a ladder. He opened many of the
+books, and found much of the writing effaced by damp. His grief was
+redoubled when the monks told him, that when they wanted money, they
+erased an ancient writing, wrote psalters and legends on the parchment,
+and sold the new MSS. to women and children(548).
+
+But though, in the fourteenth century, copies of the classics were
+multiplied and rendered more accessible to the world, and though a few
+were made by such hands as those of Petrarch and Boccaccio, the
+transcriptions in general were much less accurate than those of a former
+period. The Latin tongue, which had received more stability than could
+otherwise have been expected, from having been consecrated in the service
+of the church, had now at length become a dead language, and many of the
+transcribers did not understand what they wrote. Still more mistakes than
+those produced by ignorance, were occasioned by the presumption of
+pretenders to learning, who were often tempted to alter the text, in order
+to accommodate the sense to their own slender capacity and defective
+taste. Whilst a remedy has been readily found for the gross oversight or
+neglect of the ignorant and idle, in substituting one letter for another,
+or inserting a word without meaning, errors affecting the sense of the
+author, which were thus introduced, have been of the worst species, and
+have chiefly contributed to compose that mass of various readings, on
+which the sagacity of modern scholars has been so copiously exercised. In
+a passage of Coluccio Salutati’s treatise _De Fato_, published by the Abbé
+Mehus, the various modes in which MSS. were depraved by copyists are fully
+pointed out(549). To such extent had these corruptions proceeded, that
+Petrarch, talking of the MSS. of his own time, and those immediately
+preceding it, asks, “Quis scriptorum inscitiæ medebitur, inertiæque
+corrumpenti omnia ac miscenti? Non quæro jam aut queror Orthographiam, quæ
+jam dudum interiit; qualitercunque utinam scriberent quod jubentur. An si
+redeat Cicero aut Livius, ante omnes Plinius Secundus, sua scripta
+religentes intelligent?” So sensible was Coluccio Salutati of the injury
+which had been done to letters by the ignorance or negligence of
+transcribers, that he proposed, as a check to the evil, that public
+libraries should be every where formed, the superintendence of which
+should be given to men of learning, who might carefully collate the MSS.
+intrusted to them, and ascertain the most correct readings(550). To this
+labour, and to the detection of counterfeit works, of which many, from
+various motives, now began to be circulated, Coluccio devoted a
+considerable portion of his own time and studies. His plan for the
+institution of public libraries did not succeed; but he amassed a private
+one, which, in that age, was second only to the library of Petrarch. A
+considerable classical library, though consisting chiefly of the later
+classics, particularly Seneca, Macrobius, Apuleius, and Suetonius, was
+amassed by Tedaldo de Casa, whose books, with many remarks and emendations
+in his own hand, were inspected by the Abbé Mehus in the library of
+Santa-Croce at Florence(551).
+
+The path which had been opened up by Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Coluccio
+Salutati, in the fourteenth century, was followed out in the ensuing
+century with wonderful assiduity and success by Poggio Bracciolini,
+Filelfo, and Ambrosio Traversari, Abbott of Camaldoli, under the guidance
+and protection of the Medicean Family and Niccolo Niccoli.
+
+Of all the learned men of his time, Poggio seems to have devoted himself
+with the greatest industry to the search for classical MSS. No
+difficulties in travelling, or indifference in the heads of convents to
+his literary inquiries, could damp his zeal. His ardour and exertions were
+fortunately crowned with most complete success. The number of MSS.
+discovered by him in different parts of Europe, during the space of nearly
+fifty years, will remain a lasting proof of his unceasing perseverance,
+and of his sagacity in these pursuits. Having spent his youth in
+travelling through different countries, he at length settled at Rome,
+where he continued as secretary, in the service of eight successive
+Pontiffs. In this capacity he, in the year 1414, accompanied Pope John
+XXIII. to the Council of Constance, which was opened in that year. While
+residing at Constance, he made several expeditions, most interesting to
+letters, in intervals of relaxation during the prosecutions of Jean Hus
+and Jerome of Prague, of which he had the official charge. His chief
+excursion was to the monastery of St Gal, about twenty miles distance from
+Constance, where his information led him to expect that he might find some
+MSS. of the ancient Roman writers(552). The earliest Abbots, and many of
+the first monks of St Gal, had been originally transferred to that
+monastery from the literary establishment founded by Charlemagne at Fulda.
+Werembert and Helperic, who were sent to St Gal from Fulda in the ninth
+century, introduced in their new residence a strong taste for letters, and
+the practice of transcribing the classics. In examining the _Histoire
+Litteraire de la France_, by the Benedictines, we find that no monastery
+in the middle ages produced so many distinguished scholars as St Gal. In
+this celebrated convent, which, (as Tenhove expresses it) had been so long
+the Dormitory of the Muses, Poggio discovered some of the most valuable
+classics,—not, however, in the library of the cloister, but covered with
+dust and filth, and rotting at the bottom of a dungeon, where, according
+to his own account, no criminal condemned to death would have been
+thrown(553). This evinces that whatever care may at one time have been
+taken of classical MSS. by the monks, they had subsequently been
+shamefully neglected.
+
+The services rendered to literature by Ambrosio of Camaldoli were inferior
+only to those of Poggio. Ambrosio was born at Forli in 1386, and was a
+disciple of Emanuel Chrysoloras. At the age of fourteen, he entered into
+the convent of Camaldoli at Florence, and thirty years afterwards became
+the Superior of his order. In the kind conciliatory disposition of
+Ambrosio, manifested by his maintaining an uninterrupted friendship with
+Niccolo Niccoli, Poggio, and Filelfo, and by moderating the quarrels of
+these irascible _Literati_—in his zeal for the sacred interests,
+discipline, and purity of his convent, to which his own moral conduct
+afforded a spotless example—and, finally, in his enthusiastic love of
+letters, in which he was second only to Petrarch, we behold the brightest
+specimen of the monastic character, of which the memory has descended to
+us from the middle ages. Though chiefly confined within the limits of a
+cloister, Ambrosio had perhaps the best pretensions of any man of his age,
+to the character of a polite scholar. The whole of the early part of his
+life, and the leisure of its close, were employed in collecting ancient
+MSS. from every quarter where they could be procured, and in maintaining a
+constant correspondence with the most distinguished men of his age. His
+letters which have been published in 1759, at Florence, with a long
+preface and life by the Abbé Mehus, contain the fullest information that
+can be any where found with regard to the recovery of ancient classical
+MSS. and the state of literature at Florence in the fifteenth century.
+
+It would appear from these Epistles, that though the monks had been
+certainly instrumental in preserving the precious relics of classical
+antiquity, their avarice and bigotry now rather obstructed the prosecution
+of the researches undertaken for the purpose of bringing them to light. It
+was their interest to keep these treasures to themselves, because it was a
+maxim of their policy to impede the diffusion of knowledge, and because
+the transcription of MSS. was to them a source of considerable emolument.
+Hence they often threw obstacles in the way of the inquiries of the
+learned, who were obliged to have recourse to various artifices, in order
+to draw classical MSS. from the recesses of the cloister(554).
+
+The exertions of Poggio and Ambrosio, however, were stimulated and aided
+by the munificent patronage of many opulent individuals of that period,
+who spared no expense in reimbursing and rewarding those who had made
+successful researches after these favourite objects of pursuit. “To such
+an enthusiasm,” says Tiraboschi, “was this desire carried, that long
+journeys were undertaken, treasures were levied, and enmities were
+excited, for the sake of an ancient MS.; and the discovery of a book was
+regarded as almost equivalent to the conquest of a kingdom.”
+
+The most zealous promoters of these researches, and most eager collectors
+of MSS. during the fifteenth century, were the Cardinal Ursini, Niccolo
+Niccoli and the Family of Medici.
+
+Niccolo Niccoli, who was an humble citizen of Florence, devoted his whole
+time and fortune to the acquisition of ancient MSS. In this pursuit he had
+been eminently successful, having collected together 800 volumes, of which
+a great proportion contained Roman authors. Poggio, in his funeral oration
+of Niccolo, bears ample testimony to his liberality and zeal, and
+attributes the successful discovery of so many classical MSS. to the
+encouragement which he had afforded. “Quod autem,” says he, “egregiam
+laudem meretur, summam operam, curamque adhibuit ad pervestigandos
+auctores, qui culpâ temporum perierant. Quâ in re verè possum dicere,
+omnes libros fere, qui noviter tum ab aliis reperti sunt, tum a me ipso,
+qui integrum Quintilianum, Ciceronis nostri orationes, Silium Italicum,
+Marcellinum, Lucretii partem, multosque præterea e Germanorum Gallorumque
+ergastulis, meâ diligentiâ eripui, atque in lucem extuli, Nicholai suasu,
+impulsu, cohortatione, et pæne verborum molestiâ esse Latinis literis
+restitutos(555).” Several of these classical works Niccolo copied with his
+own hand, and with great accuracy, after he had received them(556). The
+MSS. in his hand-writing were long known and distinguished by the beauty
+and distinctness of the characters. Nor did he content himself with mere
+transcription: He diligently employed himself in correcting the errors of
+the MSS. which were transmitted to him, and arranging the text in its
+proper order. “Quum eos auctores,” says Mehus, “ex vetustissimis codicibus
+exscriberet, qui suo potissimum consilio, aliorum vero operâ inventi sunt,
+non solum mendis, quibus obsiti erant, expurgavit, sed etiam distinxit,
+capitibusque locupletavit(557).” Such was the judgment of Niccolo, in this
+species of emendation, that Politian always placed the utmost reliance on
+his MS. copies(558); and, indeed, from a complimentary poem addressed to
+him in his own time, it would seem that he had carefully collated
+different MSS. of the same work, before he transcribed his own copy—
+
+  “Ille hos errores, unâ exemplaribus actis
+  Pluribus ante oculos, ne postera oberret et ætas,
+  Corrigit.”
+
+Previous to the time of Niccolo, the only libraries of any extent or value
+in Italy, were those of Petrarch, Coluccio Salutati, and Boccaccio. The
+books which had belonged to Petrarch and Coluccio, were sold or dispersed
+after the decease of their illustrious possessors. Boccaccio’s library had
+been bequeathed by him to a religious order, the Hermits of St Augustine;
+and this library was repaired and arranged by Niccolo, for the use of the
+convent, and a proper hall built for its reception(559). Niccolo was
+likewise the first person in modern times who conceived the idea of
+forming a public library. Previous to his death, which happened in 1437,
+he directed that his books should be devoted to the use of the public; and
+for this purpose he appointed sixteen curators, among whom was Cosmo de
+Medici. After his demise, it appeared that he was greatly in debt, and
+that his liberal intentions were likely to be frustrated by the insolvency
+of his circumstances. Cosmo therefore offered to his associates, that if
+they would resign to him the exclusive right of the disposal of the books,
+he would himself discharge all the debts of Niccolo, to which proposal
+they readily acceded. Having thus obtained the sole direction of the MSS.,
+he deposited them for public use in the Dominican Monastery of St Marco,
+at Florence, which he had himself erected at an enormous expense(560).
+This library, for some time celebrated under the name of the _Bibliotheca
+Marciana_, or library of St Marc, was arranged and catalogued by Tommaso
+da Sarzana Calandrino, at that time a poor but zealous scholar in the
+lower orders of the clergy, and afterwards Pope, by the name of Nicholas
+V. The building which contained the books of Niccolo having been destroyed
+by an earthquake in 1454, Cosmo rebuilt it on such a plan, as to admit a
+more extensive collection. After this it was enriched by private donations
+from citizens of Florence, who, catching the spirit of the reigning
+family, vied with each other in the extent and value of their gifts(561).
+
+When Cosmo, having finally triumphed over his enemies, was recalled from
+banishment, and became the first citizen of Florence, “which he governed
+without arms or a title,” he employed his immense wealth in the
+encouragement of learned men, and in collecting, under his own roof, the
+remains of the ancient Greek and Roman writers. His riches, and extensive
+mercantile intercourse with different parts of Europe and Asia, enabled
+him to gratify a passion of this kind beyond any other individual. He gave
+injunctions to all his friends and correspondents, to search for and
+procure ancient MSS., in every language, and on every subject. From these
+beginnings arose the celebrated library of the Medici, which, in the time
+of Cosmo, was particularly distinguished for MSS. of Latin
+classics—possessing, in particular, full and accurate copies of Virgil,
+Cicero, Seneca, Ovid, and Tibullus(562). This collection, after the death
+of its founder, was farther enriched by the attention of his descendants,
+particularly his grandson, Lorenzo, under whom it acquired the name of the
+Medicean-Laurentian Library. “If there was any pursuit,” says the
+biographer of Lorenzo, “in which he engaged more ardently, and persevered
+more diligently, than the rest, it was in that of enlarging his
+collections of books and antiquities. His emissaries were dispersed
+through every part of the globe, for the purpose of collecting books, and
+he spared no expense in procuring, for the learned, the materials
+necessary for the prosecution of their studies(563).” In the execution of
+his noble design, he was assisted by Ermolao Barbaro, and Paulo Cortesi;
+but his principal coadjutor was Politian, to whom he committed the care
+and arrangement of his collection, and who made excursions, at intervals,
+through Italy, to discover and purchase such remains of antiquity as
+suited the purposes of his patron. An ample treasure of books was
+expected, during his last illness, under the care of Lascaris. When the
+vital spark was nearly extinguished, he called Politian to his side, and
+grasping his hand, told him he could have wished to have lived to see the
+library completed(564).
+
+After the death of Lorenzo, some of the volumes were dispersed, when
+Charles VIII. of France invaded Italy; and, on the expulsion of the Medici
+family from Florence, in 1496, the remaining volumes of the Laurentian
+collection were united with the books in the library of St Mark.
+
+It being the great object of Lorenzo to diffuse the spirit of literature
+as extensively as possible, he permitted the Duke of Urbino, who
+particularly distinguished himself as a patron of learning, to copy such
+of his MSS. as he wished to possess. The families, too, of Visconti at
+Milan, of Este at Ferrara, and Gonzaga at Mantua, excited by the glorious
+example set before them, emulated the Medici in their patronage of
+classical literature, and formation of learned establishments. “The
+division of Italy,” says Mr Mills, “into many independent principalities,
+was a circumstance highly favourable to the nourishing and expanding
+learning. Every city had a Mæcenas sovereign. The princes of Italy
+rivalled each other in literary patronage as much as in political power,
+and changes of dominion did not affect letters(565).” Eight Popes, in
+succession, employed Poggio as their secretary, which greatly aided the
+promotion of literature, and the collecting of MSS. at Rome. The last
+Pontiff he served was Nicholas V., who, before his elevation, as we have
+seen, had arranged the library of St Mark at Florence. From his youth he
+had shown the most wonderful avidity for copies of ancient MSS., and an
+extraordinary turn for elegant and accurate transcription, with his own
+hand. By the diligence and learning which he exhibited in the schools of
+Bologna, he secured the patronage of many literary characters. Attached to
+the family of Cardinal Albergati, he accompanied him in several embassies,
+and seldom returned without bringing back with him copies of such ancient
+works as had been previously unknown in Italy. The titles of some of these
+are mentioned by his biographer, who adds, that there was no Latin author,
+with whose writings he was unacquainted. This enabled him to be useful in
+the arrangement of many libraries formed at this period(566). His
+promotion to the Pontifical chair, in 1447, was, in the circumstances of
+the times, peculiarly auspicious to the cause of letters. With the
+assistance of Poggio, he founded the library of the Vatican. The scanty
+collection of his predecessors had been nearly dissipated or destroyed, by
+frequent removals from Rome to Avignon: But Nicholas more than repaired
+these losses; and before his death, had collected upwards of 5000 volumes
+of Greek and Roman authors—and the Vatican being afterwards increased by
+Sixtus IV. and Leo X. became, both in extent and value, the first library
+in the world.
+
+It is with Poggio, that the studies peculiar to the commentator may be
+considered as having commenced, at least so far as regards the Latin
+classics. Poggio lived from 1380 to 1459. He was succeeded towards the
+close of the fifteenth century, and during the whole course of the
+sixteenth, by a long series of Italian commentators, among whom the
+highest rank may be justly assigned to Politian.—(Born, 1454–died, 1494.)
+To him the world has been chiefly indebted for corrections and
+elucidations of the texts of Roman authors, which, from a variety of
+causes, were, when first discovered, either corrupt, or nearly illegible.
+In the exercise of his critical talents, Politian did not confine himself
+to any one precise method, but adopted such as he conceived best suited
+his purpose—on some occasions only comparing different copies, diligently
+marking the variations, rejecting spurious readings, and substituting the
+true. In other cases he proceeded farther, adding _scholia_ and notes,
+illustrative of the text, either from his own conjecture, or the authority
+of preceding writers. To the name of Politian, I may add those of his
+bitter rival and contemporary, Georgius Merula, (born, 1420–died, 1494);
+Aldus Manutius, (1447–1516); his son Paullus; Landini, author of the
+_Disputationes Camaldulenses_, (1424–1504); Philippus Beroaldus,
+(1453–1505); Petrus Victorius, (1498–1585); Robortellus, (1516–1567). Most
+of these commentators were entirely verbal critics; but this was by far
+the most useful species of criticism which could be employed at the period
+in which they lived. We have already seen, that in the time of Petrarch,
+classical manuscripts had been very inaccurately transcribed; and,
+therefore, the first great duty of a commentator, was to amend and purify
+the text. Criticisms on the general merits of the author, or the beauties
+of particular passages, and even expositions of the full import of his
+meaning, deduced from antiquities, mythology, history, or geography, were
+very secondary considerations. Nor, indeed, was knowledge far enough
+advanced at the time, to supply such illustrations. Grammar, and verbal
+criticism, formed the porch by which it was necessary to enter that temple
+of sublimity and beauty which had been reared by the ancients; and without
+this access, philosophy would never have enlightened letters, or letters
+ornamented philosophy. “I cannot, indeed, but think,” says Mr Payne
+Knight, in his Analytical Essay on the Greek Alphabet, “that the judgment
+of the public, on the respective merits of the different classes of
+critics, is peculiarly partial and unjust. Those among them who assume the
+office of pointing out the beauties, and detecting the faults, of literary
+composition, are placed with the orator and historian, in the highest
+ranks, whilst those who undertake the more laborious task of washing away
+the rust and canker of time, and bringing back those forms and colours,
+which are the objects of criticism, to their original purity and
+brightness, are degraded with the index-maker and antiquary among the
+pioneers of literature, whose business it is to clear the way for those
+who are capable of more splendid and honourable enterprizes. Nevertheless,
+if we examine the effects produced by those two classes of critics, we
+shall find that the first have been of no use whatever, and that the last
+have rendered the most important services to mankind. All persons of taste
+and understanding know, from their own feelings, when to approve and
+disapprove, and therefore stand in no need of instructions from the
+critic. But whatever may be the taste or discernment of a reader, or the
+genius and ability of a writer, neither the one nor the other can appear
+while the text remains deformed by the corruptions of blundering
+transcribers, and obscured by the glosses of ignorant grammarians. It is
+then that the aid of the verbal critic is required; and though his minute
+labour in dissecting syllables and analysing letters may appear
+contemptible in its operation, it will be found important in its effect.”
+It is to those early critics, then, who washed away the rust and canker of
+time, and brought back those forms and colours which are the subject of
+criticism, that classical literature has been chiefly indebted. The newly
+discovered art of printing, which was itself the offspring of the general
+ardour for literary improvement, and of the daily experience of
+difficulties encountered in prosecuting classical studies, contributed, in
+an eminent degree, to encourage this species of useful criticism. At the
+instigation of Lorenzo, and other patrons of learning in Italy, many
+scholars in that country were induced to bestow their attention on the
+collation and correction of the MSS. of ancient authors, in order that
+they might be submitted to the press with the greatest possible accuracy,
+and in their original purity. Nor was it a slight inducement to the
+industrious scholar, that his commentaries were no longer to be hid in the
+recesses of a few vast libraries, but were to be now placed in the view of
+mankind, and enshrined, as it were, for ever in the immortal page of the
+poet or historian whose works he had preserved or elucidated.
+
+With Fulvius Ursinus, who died in the year 1600, the first school of
+Italian commentators may be considered as terminating. In the following
+century, classical industry was chiefly directed to translation; and in
+the eighteenth century, the list of eminent commentators was increased
+only by the name of Vulpius, who introduced a new style in classical
+criticism, by an amusing collection of verses, both in ancient and modern
+poets, which were parallel to passages in his author, not merely in some
+words, but in the poetical idea.
+
+The career which had so gloriously commenced in Italy in the end of the
+fifteenth century, was soon followed in France and Germany. Julius
+Scaliger, a native of Verona, had been naturalized in France, and he
+settled there in the commencement of the sixteenth century. In that
+country classical studies were introduced, under the patronage of Francis
+I., and were prosecuted in his own and the six following reigns, by a long
+succession of illustrious scholars, among whom Turnebus (1512–1565),
+Lambrinus (1526–1572), the family of the Stephenses, who rivalled the
+Manutii of Italy, Muretus (1526–1585), Casaubon (1559–1614), Joseph
+Scaliger (1540–1609), and Salmasius (1588–1653), distinguished themselves
+by the illustration of the Latin classics, and the more difficult
+elucidation of those studies which assist and promote a full intelligence
+of their meaning and beauties. Our geographical and historical knowledge
+of the ancient world, was advanced by Charles Stephens—its chronology was
+ascertained by Scaliger, and the whole circle of antiquities was extended
+by Salmasius. After the middle of the seventeenth century, a new taste in
+the illustration of classical literature sprung up in France—a lighter
+manner and more philosophic spirit being then introduced. The celebrated
+controversy on the comparative merit of the ancients and moderns, aided a
+more popular elucidation of the classics; and as the preceptors of the
+royal family were on the side of the ancients, they promoted the famed
+Delphin edition, which commenced under the auspices of the Duke De
+Montausier, and was carried on by a body of learned Jesuits, under the
+superintendence of Bossuet and Huetius. Elegance and taste were required
+for the instruction of a young French Prince; and accordingly, instead of
+profound philological learning, or the assiduous collation of MSS., light
+notes were appended, explanatory of the mythological and historical
+allusions contained in the works of the author, as also remarks on his
+most prominent defects and excellencies.
+
+Joseph Scaliger and Salmasius, who were French Protestants, found shelter
+for their heretical principles, and liberal reward for their learning, in
+the University of Leyden; and with Douza (1545–1604), and Justus Lipsius
+(1547–1606), became the fathers and founders of classical knowledge in the
+Netherlands. As the inhabitants of that territory spoke and wrote a
+language which was but ill adapted for the expression of original thought,
+their whole force of mind was directed to throwing their humorous and
+grand conceptions on canvass, or to the elucidation of the writings of
+those who had been gifted with a more propitious tongue. These studies and
+researches were continued by Heinsius (1582–1655), Gerard and Isaac
+Vossius (1577–1689), and Gronovius (1611–1671). At this period Schrevelius
+(1615–1664) commenced the publication of the Classics, _cum Notis
+__Variorum_; and in the end of the seventeenth century, his example was
+followed by some of the most distinguished editors. The merit of these
+editions was very different, and has been variously estimated. Morhoff,
+while he does justice to the editorial works of Gronovius and other
+learned men, in which parts of the commentaries of predecessors,
+judiciously extracted, were given at full length, has indulged himself in
+an invective against other _variorum_ editions, in which everything was
+mutilated and incorrect. “Sane ne comparandæ quidem illi” (the editions of
+Aldus) “sunt ineptæ Variorum editiones; quam nuper pestem bonis auctoribus
+Bibliopolæ Batavi inducere cœperunt, reclamantibus frustra viris
+doctis(567).” In the course of the eighteenth century, the Burmans
+(1668–1778), Oudendorp (1696–1761), and Havercamp (1684–1742), continued
+to support the honour of a school, which as yet had no parallel in
+certainty, copiousness, and depth of illustration.
+
+In Germany, the school which had been established by Charlemagne at Fulda,
+and that at Paderborn, long flourished under the superintendence of
+Meinwerk. The author of the Life of that scholar, speaking of these
+establishments, says, “Ibi viguit Horatius, magnus atque Virgilius,
+Crispus et Sallustius, et Urbanus Statius.” During the ninth century,
+Rabin Maur, a scholar of Alcuin, and head of the cathedral school at
+Fulda, became a celebrated teacher; and profane literature was not
+neglected by him amid the importance of his sacred lessons. Classical
+learning, however, was first thoroughly awakened in Germany, by the
+scholars of Thomas A’Kempis, in the end of the fifteenth century. A number
+of German youths, who were associated in a species of literary fraternity,
+travelled into Italy, at the time when the search for classical MSS. in
+that country was most eagerly prosecuted. Rudolph Agricola, afterwards
+Professor of Philosophy at Worms, was one of the most distinguished of
+these scholars. Living immediately after the invention of printing, and at
+a time when that art had not yet entirely superseded the transcription of
+MSS., he possessed an extensive collection of these, as well as of the
+works which had just issued resplendent from the press. Both were
+illustrated by him with various readings on the margin; and we perceive
+from the letters of Erasmus the value which even he attached to these
+notes, and the use which he made of the variations. Rudolph was succeeded
+by Herman von Busche, who lectured on the classics at Leipsic. He had in
+his possession a number of the Latin classics; but it is evident from his
+letters that some, as for instance Silius Italicus, were still
+inaccessible to him, or could only be procured with great difficulty. The
+German scholars did not bring so many MSS. to light, or multiply copies of
+them, so much as the Italians, because, in fact, their country was less
+richly stored than Italy with the treasures bequeathed to us by antiquity;
+but they exercised equal critical acuteness in amending the errors of the
+MSS. which they possessed. The sixteenth century was the age which
+produced in Germany the most valuable and numerous commentaries on the
+Latin classics. That country, in common with the Netherlands, was
+enlightened, during this period, by the erudition of Erasmus (1467–1536).
+In the same and succeeding age, Camerarius (1500–1574), Taubmann
+(1565–1613), Acidalius (1567–1595), and Gruterus (1560–1627), enriched the
+world with some of the best editions of the classics which had hitherto
+appeared. Towards the close of the seventeenth century, classical
+literature had for some time rather declined in Germany—polemical theology
+and religious wars having at this period exhausted and engrossed the
+attention of her universities. But it was revived again about the middle
+of the eighteenth by J. Math. Gesner (1691–1761), and Ernesti (1707–1781),
+who created an epoch in Germany for the study of the ancient authors.
+These two scholars surpassed all their predecessors in taste, in a
+philosophical spirit, and in a wide acquaintance with the subsidiary
+branches of erudition: They made an advantageous use of their critical
+knowledge of the languages; they looked at once to the words and to the
+subject of the ancient writers, established and applied the rules of a
+legitimate interpretation, and carefully analysed the meaning as well as
+the form of the expression. Their task was extended from words to things;
+and what has been called Æsthetic annotations, were combined with
+philological discussion. “Non volui,” says Gesner, in the Preface to his
+edition of Claudian, “commentarios scribere, collectos undique, aut locos
+communes: Non volui dictionem poetæ, congestis aliorum poetarum formulis
+illustrare; sed cum illud volui efficere poeta ut intelligatur, tum
+judicio meo juvare volui juniorum judicium, quid pulchrum, atque decens,
+et summorum poetarum simile putarem ostendendo, et contra, ea, ubi errâsse
+illum a naturâ, a magnis exemplis, a decoro arbitrarer, cum fide
+indicando.” J. Ernesti considers Gesner as unquestionably the first who
+introduced what he terms the Æsthetic mode of criticism(568). But the
+honour of being the founder of this new school, has perhaps, with more
+justice, been assigned by others to Heyne(569) (1729–1811). “From the
+middle of last century,” it is remarked, in a late biographical sketch of
+Heyne, “several intelligent philologers of Germany displayed a more
+refined and philosophic method in their treatment of the different
+branches of classical learning, who, without neglecting either the
+grammatical investigation of the language, or the critical constitution of
+the text, no longer regarded a Greek or Roman writer as a subject for the
+mere grammarian and critic; but, considering the study of the ancients as
+a school for thought, for feeling, and for taste, initiated us into the
+great mystery of reading every thing in the same spirit in which it had
+originally been written. They demonstrated, both by doctrine and example,
+in what manner it was necessary for us to enter into the thoughts of the
+writer, to pitch ourselves in unison with his peculiar tone of conception
+and expression, and to investigate the circumstances by which his mind was
+affected—the motives by which he was animated—and the influences which
+co-operated in giving the intensity and character of his feelings. At the
+head of this school stands Heyne; and it must be admitted, that nothing
+has contributed so decisively to maintain or promote the study of
+classical literature, as the combination which he has effected of
+philosophy with erudition, both in his commentaries on ancient authors,
+and those works in which he has illustrated various points of antiquity,
+or discussed the habit of thinking and spirit of the ancient world.” From
+the time of Heyne, almost the whole grand inheritance of Roman literature
+has been cultivated by commentators, who have raised the Germans to
+undisputed pre-eminence among the nations of Europe, for profound
+classical learning, and all the delightful researches connected with
+literary history. I have only space to mention the names of Zeunius
+(1736–1788), Jani (1743–1790), Wernsdorff (1723–1793); and among those who
+still survive, Harles (born 1738), Schütz (1747), Schneider (1751), Wolf
+(1757), Beck, (1757), Doering (1759), Mitscherlich (1760), Wetzel (1762),
+Goerenz (1765), Eichstädt (1771), Hermann (1772).
+
+While classical literature and topography were so highly cultivated
+abroad, England, at the revival of literature, remained greatly behind her
+continental neighbours in the elucidation and publication of the precious
+remains of ancient learning. It appears from Ames’ Typographical
+Antiquities, that the press of our celebrated ancient printers, as Caxton,
+Wynkin de Worde, and Pynson, was rarely employed in giving accuracy or
+embellishment to the works of the classics; and, indeed, so late as the
+middle of the sixteenth century, only Terence and Cicero’s _Offices_ had
+been published in this country, in their original tongue. Matters had by
+no means improved in the seventeenth century. Evelyn, who had paid great
+attention to the subject, gives the following account of the state of
+classical typography and editorship in England, in a letter to the Lord
+Chancellor Clarendon, dated November 1666: “Our booksellers,” says he,
+“follow their own judgment in printing the ancient authors, according to
+such text as they found extant when first they entered their copy;
+whereas, out of the MSS. collated by the industry of later critics, those
+authors are exceedingly improved. For instance, about thirty years since,
+Justin was corrected by Isaac Vossius, in many hundreds of places, most
+material to sense and elegancy, and has since been frequently reprinted in
+Holland, after the purer copy; but with us still according to the old
+reading. The like has Florus, Seneca’s Tragedies, and near all the rest,
+which have, in the meantime, been castigated abroad by several learned
+hands, which, besides that it makes ours to be rejected, and dishonours
+our nation, so does it no little detriment to learning, and to the
+treasure of the nation in proportion. The cause of this is principally the
+stationer driving as hard and cruel a bargain with the printer as he can,
+and the printer taking up any smatterer in the tongues, to be the less
+loser; an exactness in this no ways importing the stipulation, by which
+means errors repeat and multiply in every edition(570).” Since the period
+in which this letter is dated, Bentley, who bears the greatest name in
+England as a critic, however acute and ingenious, did more by his slashing
+alterations to injure than amend the text, at least of the Latin authors
+on whom he commented. He substituted what he thought best for what he
+actually found; and such was his deficiency in taste, that what he thought
+best (as is evinced by his changes on the text of Lucretius), was
+frequently destructive of the poetical idea, and almost of the sense of
+his author.
+
+I have thought it right, before entering into detail concerning the
+_Codices_ and editions of the works of the early classics mentioned in the
+text, briefly to remind the reader of the general circumstances connected
+with the loss and recovery of the classical MSS. of Rome, and to recall to
+his recollection the names of a few of the most celebrated commentators in
+Italy, France, Holland, and Germany. This will render the following
+Appendix, in which there must be constant reference to the discovery of
+MSS. and the labours of commentators, somewhat more distinct and
+perspicuous than I could otherwise make it.
+
+
+
+
+                        LIVIUS ANDRONICUS, NÆVIUS.
+
+
+The fragments of these old writers are so inconsiderable, that no one has
+thought of editing them separately. They are therefore to be found only in
+the general collections of the whole Latin poets; as Maittaires _Opera et
+Fragmenta Veterum Poetarum Latinorum_, London, 1713. 2 Tom. fo., (to some
+copies of which a new title-page has been printed, bearing the date, Hag.
+Comit. 1721;) or in the collections of the Latin tragic poets, as Delrio’s
+_Syntagma Tragœdiæ Latinæ_, Paris, 1620, and Scriverius’ _Collectanea
+Veterum Tragicorum_, Lugd. Bat. 1620. It is otherwise with
+
+
+
+
+                                 ENNIUS,
+
+
+of whose writings, as we have seen, more copious fragments remain than
+from those of his predecessors. The whole works of this poet were extant
+in the time of Cassiodorus; but no copy of them has since appeared. The
+fragments, however, found in Cicero, Macrobius, and the old grammarians,
+are so considerable, that they have been frequently collected together,
+and largely commented on. They were first printed in Stephen’s _Fragmenta
+Veterum Poetarum Latinorum_, but without any proper connection or
+criticism. Ludovicus Vives had intended to collect and arrange them, as we
+are informed in one of his notes to St Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_: But
+this task he did not live to accomplish(571). The first person who
+arranged these scattered fragments, united them together, and classed them
+under the books to which they belonged, was Hier. Columna. He adopted the
+orthography which, from a study of the ancient Roman monuments and
+inscriptions, he found to be that of the Latin language in the age of
+Ennius. He likewise added a commentary, and prefixed a life of the poet.
+The edition which he had thus fully prepared, was first published at
+Naples in 1590, four years after his death, by his son Joannes
+Columna(572). This _Editio Princeps_ of Ennius is very rare, but it was
+reprinted under the care of Fr. Hesselius at Amsterdam in 1707. To the
+original commentary of Columna there are added the annotations on Ennius
+which had been inserted in Delrio and Scriverius’ collection of the Latin
+tragic poets; and Hesselius himself supplied a very complete _Index
+Verborum_. The ancient authors, who quote lines from Ennius, sometimes
+mention the book of the _Annals_, or the name of the tragedy to which they
+belonged, but sometimes this information is omitted. The arrangement,
+therefore, of the verses of the latter description (which are marked with
+an asterisk in Columna’s edition), and indeed the precise collocation of
+the whole, is in a great measure conjectural. Accordingly, we find that
+the order of the lines in the edition of Paulus Merula is very different
+from that adopted by Columna. The materials for Merula’s edition, which
+comprehends only the _Annals_ of Ennius, had already been collected and
+prepared at the time when Columna’s was first given to the world. Merula,
+however, conceived that while the great object of Columna had been to
+compare and contrast the lines of Ennius with those of other heroic poets,
+he himself had been more happy in the arrangement of the verses, and the
+restoration of the ancient orthography, which is much more antiquated in
+the edition of Merula than in that of Columna. He had also discovered some
+fragments of the _Annals_, unknown to Columna, in the MS. of a work of L.
+Calp. Piso, a writer of the age of Trajan, entitled _De Continentiâ
+Veterum Poetarum_, and preserved in the library of St Victor at Paris. In
+these circumstances, Merula was not deterred by the appearance of the
+edition of Columna, from proceeding with his own, which at length came
+forth at Leyden in the year 1595. The same sort of discrepance which
+exists between Columna and Merula’s arrangement of the Annals, appears in
+the collocation of the _Tragic Fragments_ adopted by Columna, and that
+which has been preferred by Delrio, in his _Syntagma Tragœdiæ Latinæ_.
+
+H. Planck published at Gottingen, in 1807, the fragments of Ennius’s
+tragedy of _Medea_. These comprehend all the verses belonging to this
+drama, collected by Columna, and some newly extracted by the editor from
+old grammarians. The whole are compared with the parallel passages in the
+_Medea_ of Euripides. Two dissertations are prefixed; one on the Origin
+and Nature of Tragedy among the Romans; and the other, on the question,
+whether Ennius wrote two tragedies, or only a single tragedy, entitled
+_Medea_. A commentary is also supplied, in which, as Fuhrmann remarks, one
+finds many things, but not much:—“Man findet in demselben _multa_, aber
+nicht _multum_(573).”
+
+Some fine passages of the fragments of Ennius have been filled up, and the
+old readings corrected, by the recent discovery of the work _De Republicâ_
+of Cicero, who is always quoting from the ancient poets. Thus the passage
+in the Annals, where the Roman people are described as lamenting the death
+of Romulus, stands thus in Columna’s edition:—
+
+  —— “O Romole, Romole, _dic ô_
+  Qualem te patriæ custodem dii genuerunt,
+  Tu produxisti nos intra luminis oras,
+  O pater, ô genitor, ô sanguen diis oriundum.”
+
+This fragment may be now supplied, and the verses arranged and corrected,
+from the quotation in the first book _De Republicâ_—
+
+  “Pectora pia tenet desiderium; simul inter
+  Sese sic memorant—O Romule, Romule _die_,
+  Qualem te patriæ custodem di genuerunt,
+  O pater, ô genitor, ô sanguen dîs oriundum!
+  Tu produxisti nos intra luminis oras.”
+
+The fragments of the Annals of Ennius, as the text is arranged by Merula,
+have been translated into Italian by Bernardo Philippini, and published at
+Rome in 1659, along with his _Poesie_. I know of no other translations of
+these fragments.
+
+
+
+
+                                 PLAUTUS.
+
+
+There can be no doubt that even the oldest MSS. of Plautus were early
+corrupted by transcribers, and varied essentially from each other. Varro,
+in his book _De Analogiâ_, ascribes some phrase of which he did not
+approve, in the _Truculentus_, to the negligence of copyists. The Latin
+comedies, written in the age of Plautus, were designed to be represented
+on the stage, and not to be read at home. It is therefore, probable, that,
+during the reign of the Republic at least, there were few copies of
+Plautus’s plays, except those delivered to the actors. The dramas were
+generally purchased by the Ædiles, for the purpose of amusing the people
+during the celebration of certain festivals. As soon as the poet’s
+agreement was concluded with the Ædile, he lost his right of property in
+the play, and frequently all concern in its success. It seems probable,
+therefore, that even during the life of the author, these magistrates, or
+censors employed by them, altered the verses at their own discretion, or
+sent the comedy for alteration to the author: But there is no doubt that,
+after his death, the actors changed and modelled the piece according to
+their own fancy, or the prevailing taste of the public, just as Cibber and
+Garrick wrought on the plays of Shakspeare. Hence new prologues, adapted
+to circumstances, were prefixed—whole verses were suppressed, and lines
+properly belonging to one play, were often transferred to another. This
+corruption of MSS. is sufficiently evinced by the circumstance, that the
+most ancient grammarians frequently cite verses as from a play of Plautus,
+which can now no longer be found in the drama quoted. Thus, a line cited
+by Festus and Servius, from the _Miles_, does not appear in any MSS. or
+ancient edition of that comedy, though, in the more recent impressions, it
+has been inserted in what was judged to be its proper place(574),
+Farther—Plautus, and indeed the old Latin writers in general, were much
+corrupted by transcribers in the middle ages, who were not fully
+acquainted with the variations which had taken place in the language, and
+to whom the Latin of the age of Constantine was more familiar than that of
+the Scipios. They were often puzzled and confused by finding a letter, as
+c, for example, introduced into a word which they had been accustomed to
+spell with a g, and they not unfrequently were totally ignorant of the
+import or signification of ancient words. In a fragment of Turpilius, a
+character in one of the comedies says, “Qui mea verba venatur pestis
+arcedat;” now, the transcriber being ignorant of the verb _arcedat_, wrote
+_ars cedat_, which converts the passage into nonsense(575).
+
+The comedies of Plautus are frequently cited by writers of the fourteenth
+century, particularly by Petrarch, who mentions the amusement which he had
+derived from the _Casina_(576). Previous, however, to the time of Poggio,
+only eight of them were known, and we consequently find that the old MSS.
+of the fourteenth century just contain eight comedies(577). By means,
+however, of Nicolas of Treves, whom Poggio had employed to search the
+monasteries of Germany, twelve more were discovered. The plays thus
+brought to light were the _Bacchides_, _Menæchmi_, _Mostellaria_, _Miles
+Gloriosus_, _Mercator_, _Pseudolus_, _Pœnulus_, _Persa_, _Rudens_,
+_Stichus_, _Trinummus_, _Truculentus_. As soon as Poggio heard of this
+valuable and important discovery, he urged the Cardinal Ursini to despatch
+a special messenger, in order to convey the treasure in safety to Rome.
+His instances, however, were not attended to, and the MSS. of the comedies
+did not arrive till two years afterwards, in the year 1428, under the
+charge of Nicolas of Treves himself(578). They were seized by the Cardinal
+immediately after they had been brought to Italy. This proceeding Poggio
+highly resented; and having in vain solicited their restoration, he
+accused Ursini of attempting to make it be believed that Plautus had been
+recovered by his exertions, and at his own expense(579). At length, by the
+intervention of Lorenzo, the brother of Cosmo de Medici, the Cardinal was
+persuaded to intrust the precious volume to Niccolo Niccoli, who got it
+carefully transcribed. Niccolo, however, detained it at Florence long
+after the copy from it had been made; and we find his friend Ambrosio of
+Camaldoli using the most earnest entreaties on the part of the Cardinal
+for its restitution.—“Cardinalis Ursinus Plautum suum recipere cupit. Non
+video quam ob causam, Plautum illi restituere non debeas, quem olim
+transcripsisti. Oro, ut amicissimo homini geratur mos(580).” The original
+MS. was at length restored to the Cardinal, after whose death it fell into
+the possession of Lorenzo de Medici, and thus came to form a part of the
+Medicean library. The copy taken by Niccolo Niccoli was transferred, on
+his decease, along with his other books, to the convent of St Mark.
+
+From a transcript of this copy, which contained the twelve newly-recovered
+plays, and from MSS. of the other eight comedies, which were more common
+and current, Georgius Merula, the disciple of Filelfo, and one of the
+greatest Latin scholars of the age, formed the first edition of the plays
+of Plautus, which was printed by J. de Colonia and Vindelin de Spira, at
+Venice, 1472, folio, and reprinted in 1482 at Trevisa. It would appear
+that Merula had not enjoyed direct access to the original MS. brought from
+Germany, or to the copy deposited in the Marcian library; for he says, in
+his dedication to the Bishop of Pavia, “that there was but one MS. of
+Plautus, from which, as an archetype, all the copies which could be
+procured were derived; and if, by any means,” he continues, “I could have
+laid my hands on it, the _Bacchides_, _Mostellaria_, _Menæchmi_, _Miles_,
+and _Mercator_, might have been rendered more correct; for the copies of
+these comedies, taken from the original MS., had been much corrupted in
+successive transcriptions; but the copies I have procured of the last
+seven comedies have not been so much tampered with by the critics, and
+therefore will be found more accurate.” Merula then compares his toil, in
+amending the corrupt text, to the labours of Hercules. His edition has
+usually been accounted the _editio princeps_ of Plautus; but I think it is
+clear, that at least eight of the comedies had been printed previously:
+Harles informs us, that Morelli, in one of his letters, had thus written
+to him:—“There is an edition of Plautus which I think equally ancient with
+the Venetian one of 1472; it is _sine ullâ notâ_, and has neither
+numerals, signatures, nor catch-words. It contains the following plays:
+_Amphitryo_, _Asinaria_, _Aulularia_, _Captivi_, _Curculio_, _Casina_,
+_Cistellaria_, _Epidicus_(581).” Now, it will be remarked, that these were
+the eight comedies current in Italy before the important discovery of the
+remaining twelve, made by Nicholas of Treves, in Germany; and the
+presumption is, that they were printed previous to the date of the edition
+of Merula, because by that time the newly-recovered comedies having got
+into circulation, it is not likely that any editor would have given to the
+world an imperfect edition of only eight comedies, when the whole dramas
+were accessible, and had excited so much interest in the mind of the
+public.
+
+Eusebius Scutarius, a scholar of Merula, took charge of an edition, which
+was amended from that of his master, and was printed in 1490, Milan,
+folio, and reprinted at Venice 1495.
+
+In 1499, an edition was brought out at Venice, by the united labour of
+Petrus Valla, and Bernard Saracenus. To these, succeeded the edition of
+Jo. Bapt. Pius, at Milan, 1500, with a preface by Phillip Beroald. Taubman
+says, that “omnes editiones mangonum manus esse passas ex quo Saracenus et
+Pius regnum et tyrannidem in literis habuere.” In the Strasburg
+impression, 1508, the text of Scutari has been followed, and about the
+same time there were several reprints of the editions of Valla and Pius.
+
+The edition of Charpentier, in 1513, was prepared from a collation of
+different editions, as the editor had no MSS.; but the editions of Pius
+and Saracenus were chiefly employed. Charpentier has prefixed arguments,
+and has divided the lines better than any of his predecessors; and he has
+also arranged the scenes, particularly those of the _Mostellaria_, to
+greater advantage.
+
+Few Latin classics have been more corrupted than Plautus, by those who
+wished to amend his text. In all the editions which had hitherto appeared,
+the perversions were chiefly occasioned by the anxiety of the editors to
+bend his lines to the supposed laws of metre. Nic. Angelius, who
+superintended an edition printed by the Giunta at Florence, 1514, was the
+first who observed that the corruptions had arisen from a desire “ad
+implendos pedum numeros.” He accordingly threw out, in his edition, all
+the words which had been unauthorizedly inserted to fill up the verses.
+From some MSS. which had not hitherto been consulted, he added several
+prologues to the plays; and also the commencement of the first act of the
+_Bacchides_, which Lascaris, in one of his letters to Cardinal Bembo, says
+he had himself found at Messina, in Sicily. These, however, though they
+have been inserted into all subsequent editions of Plautus, are evidently
+written by a more modern hand than that of Plautus. Two editions were
+superintended and printed by the Manutii, 1516 and 1522; that in 1522,
+though prepared by F. Asulanus, from a MS. corrected in the hand of the
+elder Aldus and Erasmus, is not highly valued(582). Two editions, by R.
+Stephens, 1529 and 1530, were formed on the edition of the Giunta, with
+the correction of a few errors. These were followed by many editions in
+Italy, France, and Germany, some of which were merely reimpressions, but
+others were accompanied with new and learned commentaries.
+
+To no one, however, has Plautus been so much indebted as to Camerarius,
+whose zeal and diligence were such, that there was scarcely a verse of
+Plautus which did not receive from him some emendation. In 1535, there had
+appeared at Magdeburg six comedies (_Aulularia_, _Captivi_, _Miles
+Gloriosus_, _Menæchmi_, _Mostellaria_, _Trinummus_,) which he had revised
+and commented on, but which were published from his MS. without his
+knowledge or authority. The privilege of the first complete edition
+printed under his own direction, is dated in 1538.
+
+The text and annotations of Camerarius now served as the basis for most of
+the subsequent editions. The Plantin editions, of which Sambucus was the
+editor, and which were printed at Antwerp 1566, and Basil 1568, contain
+the notes and corrections of Camerarius, with about 300 verses more than
+any preceding impression.
+
+Lambinus, in preparing the Paris edition, 1577, collated a number of MSS.
+and amassed many passages from the ancient grammarians. He only lived,
+however, to complete thirteen of the comedies; but his colleague, Helias,
+put the finishing hand to the work, and added an index, after which it
+came forth with a prefatory dedication by Lambinus’s son. On this edition,
+(in which great critical learning and sagacity, especially in the
+discovery of _double entendres_, were exhibited,) the subsequent
+impressions, Leyden, 1581(583), Geneva, 1581, and Paris 1587, were chiefly
+formed.
+
+Lambinus, in preparing his edition, had chiefly trusted to his own
+ingenuity and learning. Taubman, the next editor of Plautus of any note,
+compiled the commentaries of others. The text of Camerarius was
+principally employed by him, but he collated it with two MSS. in the
+Palatine library, which had once belonged to Camerarius; and he received
+the valuable assistance of Gruterus, who was at that time keeper of the
+library at Heidelberg. Newly-discovered fragments—the various opinions of
+ancient and modern writers concerning Plautus—a copious _index verborum_—a
+preface—a dedication to the triumvirs of literature of the day, Joseph
+Scaliger, Justus Lipsius, and Casaubon—in short, every species of literary
+apparatus accompanied the edition of Taubman, which first appeared at
+Frankfort in 1605. It was very inaccurately printed, however; so
+incorrectly indeed, that the editor, in a letter addressed to Jungerman,
+in September 1606, acknowledges that he was ashamed of it. Philip Pareus,
+who had long been pursuing similar studies with those of Taubman, embraced
+the opportunity, afforded by the inaccuracy of this edition, of publishing
+in Frankfort, in 1610, a Plautus, which was professedly the rival of that
+which had been produced by the united efforts of Taubman and Gruterus, and
+which had not only disappointed the expectations of the public, but of the
+learned editors themselves. Their feelings on this subject, and the
+_opposition Plautus_ edited by Pareus, stimulated Taubman to give an
+amended edition of his former one. This second impression, which is much
+more accurate than the first, was printed at Wittenberg in 1612, and was
+accompanied with the dissertation of Camerarius _De Fabulis Plautonicis_,
+and that of Jul. Scaliger, _De Versibus Comicis_. Taubman died the year
+after the appearance of this edition: Its fame, however, survived him, and
+not only retrieved his character, which had been somewhat sullied by the
+bad ink and dirty paper of the former edition, but completely eclipsed the
+classical reputation of Pareus. Envious of the renown of his rivals, that
+scholar obtained an opportunity of inspecting the MSS. which had been
+collated by Taubman and Gruterus. These he now compared more minutely than
+his predecessors had done, and published the fruits of his labour at
+Neustadt, in 1617. This was considered as derogating from the accuracy and
+critical ingenuity of Gruterus, and insulting to the manes of
+Taubman.—“Hinc jurgium, tumultus Grutero et Pareo.” Gruterus attacked
+Pareus in a little tract, entitled _Asini Cumani fraterculus e Plauto
+electis electus per Eustathium Schwarzium puerum_, 1619, and was answered
+by Pareus not less bitterly, in his _Provocatio ad Senatum Criticum
+adversus personatos Pareomastigos_. From this time Pareus and Gruterus
+continued to print successive editions of Plautus, in emulation and odium
+of each other. Gruterus printed one at Wittenberg in 1621, with a
+prefatory invective against Pareus, and with the _Euphemiæ amicorum in
+Plautum Gruteri_. Pareus then attempted to surpass his rival, by
+comprehending in his edition a collection of literary miscellanies—as
+Bullengerus’ description of Greek and Roman theatres. At length Pareus got
+the better of his obstinate opponent, in the only way in which that was
+possible—by surviving him; he then enjoyed an opportunity of publishing,
+unmolested, his last edition of Plautus, printed at Frankfort, 1641,
+containing a Dissertation on the Life and Writings of Plautus; the
+Eulogies pronounced on him; Remarks on his Versification; a diatribe _de
+jocis et salibus Plautinis_; an exhibition of his Imitations from the
+Greek Poets; and, finally, the _Euphemiæ_ of Learned Friends. Being now
+relieved of all apprehensions from the animadversions of Gruterus, he
+boldly termed his edition “Absolutissimam, perfectissimam, omnibusque
+virtutibus suis ornatissimam.”
+
+I have now brought the history of this notable controversy to a
+conclusion. During its subsistence, various other editions of Plautus had
+been published—that of Isaac Pontanus, Amsterdam, 1620, from a MS. in his
+own possession—that of Nic. Heinsius, Leyden, 1635, and that of
+Buxhornius, 1645, who had the advantage of consulting a copy of Plautus,
+enriched with MS. notes, in the handwriting of Joseph Scaliger.
+
+Gronovius at length published the edition usually called the _Variorum_.
+Bentley, in his critical emendations on Menander, speaks with great
+contempt of the notes which Gronovius had compiled. The first Variorum
+edition was printed at Leyden in 1664, the second in 1669, and the third,
+which is accounted the best, at Amsterdam, 1684.
+
+The Delphin edition was nearly coeval with these Variorum editions, having
+been printed at Paris, 1679. It was edited under care of Jacques l’Œuvre
+or Operarius, but is not accounted one of the best of the class to which
+it belongs. The text was principally formed on the last edition of
+Gruterus, and the notes of Taubman were chiefly employed. The
+_Prolegomena_ on the Life and Writings of Plautus, is derived from various
+sources, and is very copious. None of the old commentators could publish
+an edition of Plautus, without indulging in a dissertation _De Obscœnis_.
+In every Delphin edition of the classics we are informed, that _consultum
+est pudori Serenissimi Delphini_; but this has been managed in various
+ways. Sometimes the offensive lines are allowed to remain, but the
+_interpretatio_ is omitted, and in its place star lights are hung out
+alongside of the passage: but in the Delphin Plautus they are concentrated
+in one focus, “_in gratiam_,” as it is expressed, “_provectioris ætatis_,”
+at the end of the volume, under the imposing title “PLAUTI OBSCŒNA:”
+
+  “And there we have them all at one full swoop;
+    Instead of being scattered through the pages,
+  They stand forth marshalled in a handsome troop,
+    To meet the ingenuous youth of future ages.
+  Till some less rigid editor shall stoop
+    To call them back into their separate cages;
+  Instead of standing staring all together,
+  Like garden gods, and not so decent either(584).”
+
+What is termed the Ernesti edition of Plautus, and which is commonly
+accounted the best of that poet, was printed at Leipsic, 1760. It was
+chiefly prepared by Aug. Otho, but Ernesti wrote the preface, containing a
+full account of the previous editions of Plautus.
+
+The two editions by the Vulpii were printed at Padua, 1725 and 1764.
+
+The text of the second Bipontine edition, 1788, was corrected by Brunck.
+The plan of the Bipontine editions of the Latin classics is well known.
+There are scarcely any annotations or commentary subjoined; but the text
+is carefully corrected, and an account of previous editions is prefixed.
+
+In the late edition by Schmieder (Gottingen, 1804), the text of Gronovius
+has been principally followed; but the editor has also added some
+conjectural emendations of his own. The commentary appears to have been
+got up in considerable haste. The preliminary notices concerning the Life
+and Writings of Plautus, and the previous editions of his works, are very
+brief and unsatisfactory. There is yet a more recent German edition by
+Bothe, which has been published in volumes from time to time at Berlin.
+Two MSS. never before consulted, and which the editor believes to be of
+the eleventh or twelfth century, were collated by him. His principal aim
+in this new edition is to restore the lines of Plautus to their proper
+metrical arrangement.
+
+With a similar view of restoring the proper measure to the verses, various
+editions of single plays of Plautus have, within these few years, been
+printed in Germany. Of this sort is the edition of the _Trinummus_, by
+Hermann (Leipsic, 1800), and of the _Miles_ (Weimar, 1804), by Danz, who
+has made some very bold alterations on the text of his author.
+
+_Italy_ having been the country in which learning first revived,—in which
+the MSS. of the Classics were first discovered, and the first editions of
+them printed,—it was naturally to be expected, that, of all the modern
+tongues of Europe, the classics should have been earliest translated into
+the Italian language. Accordingly we find, that the most celebrated and
+popular of them appeared in the _Lingua Volgare_, previous to the year
+1500(585).
+
+With regard to Plautus, Maffei mentions, as the first translation of the
+_Amphitryon_, a work in _ottava rima_, printed without a date. This work
+was long believed to be a production of Boccaccio(586), but it was in fact
+written by Ghigo Brunelleschi, an author of equal or superior antiquity,
+and whose initials were mistaken for those of Giovanni Boccaccio. Though
+spoken of by Maffei as a dramatic version, it is in fact a tale or novel
+founded on the comedy of Plautus, and was called _Geta e Birria_(587).
+Pandolfo Collenuccio was the first who translated the _Amphitryon_ in its
+proper dramatic form, and _terza rima_. He was in the service of Hercules,
+first Duke of Ferrara, who made this version be represented, in January,
+1487, in the splendid theatre which he had recently built, and on occasion
+of the nuptials of his daughter Lucretia. The _Menechmi_, partly
+translated in _ottava_ and partly in _terza rima_, was the first piece
+ever acted on that theatre. The Este family were great promoters of these
+versions; which, though not printed till the sixteenth century, were for
+the most part made and represented before the close of the fifteenth. The
+dramatic taste of Duke Hercules descended to his son Alphonso, by whose
+command Celio Calcagnino translated the _Miles Gloriosus_. Paitoni
+enumerates four different translations of the _Asinaria_, in the course of
+the sixteenth century, one of which was acted in the monastery of St
+Stephen’s, at Venice.
+
+There were also a few versions of particular plays in the course of the
+_eighteenth_ century; but Paitoni, whose work was printed in 1767,
+mentions no complete Italian translation of Plautus, nor any version
+whatever of the _Truculentus_, or _Trinummus_. The first version of all
+the comedies was that of Nic. Eug. Argelio, which was accompanied by the
+Latin text, and was printed at Naples, 1783, in 10 volumes 8vo.
+
+The subject of translation was early attended to in _France_. In the year
+1540, a work containing rules for it was published by Steph. Dolet, which
+was soon followed by similar productions; and, in the ensuing century, its
+principles became a great topic of controversy among critics and scholars.
+Plautus, however, was not one of the classics earliest rendered. Though
+Terence had been repeatedly translated while the language was almost in a
+state of barbarism, Plautus did not appear in a French garb, till clothed
+in it by the Abbé Marolles, at the solicitation of Furetiere, in 1658. The
+Abbé, being more anxious to write many than good books, completed his task
+in a few months, and wrote as the sheets were throwing off. His
+translation is dedicated to the King, Louis XIV., and is accompanied by
+the Latin text. We shall find, as we proceed, that almost all the Latin
+authors of this period were translated into French by the indefatigable
+Abbé de Marolles. He was unfortunately possessed of the opulence and
+leisure which Providence had denied to Plautus, Terence, and Catullus; and
+the leisure he enjoyed was chiefly devoted to translation. “Translation,”
+says D’Israeli, “was the mania of the Abbé de Marolles; sometimes two or
+three classical victims in a season were dragged into his slaughter-house.
+The notion he entertained of his translations was their closeness; he was
+not aware of his own spiritless style and he imagined that poetry only
+consisted in the thoughts, and not in the grace and harmony of
+verse(588).”
+
+De Coste’s translation of the _Captivi_, in prose, 1716, has been already
+mentioned. This author was not in the same hurry as Marolles, for he kept
+his version ten years before he printed it. He has prefixed a
+Dissertation, in which he maintains, that Plautus, in this comedy, has
+rigidly observed the dramatic unities of time and place.
+
+Mad. Dacier has translated the _Amphitryon_, _Rudens_, and _Epidicus_. Her
+version, which is accompanied by the Latin text, and is dedicated to
+Colbert, was first printed 1683. An examination of the defects and
+beauties of these comedies, particularly in respect of the dramatic
+unities, is prefixed, and remarks by no means deficient in learning are
+subjoined. Some changes from the printed Latin editions are made in the
+arrangement of the scenes. In her dissertation on the _Epidicus_, which
+was a favourite play of Plautus himself, Mad. Dacier attempts to justify
+this preference of the poet, and wishes indeed to persuade us, that it is
+a faultless production. Goujet remarks that one is not very forcibly
+struck with all the various beauties which she enumerates in perusing the
+original, and still less sensible of them in reading her translation.
+
+M. de Limiers, who published a version of the whole plays of Plautus in
+1719, has not rendered anew those which had been translated by Mad. Dacier
+and by De Coste, but has inserted their versions in his work. These are
+greatly better than the others, which are translated by Limiers himself.
+All of them are in prose, except the _Stichus_ and _Trinummus_, which the
+author has turned into verse, in order to give a specimen of his poetic
+talents. In the versifications, he has placed himself under the needless
+restraint of rendering each Latin line by only one in French, so that
+there should not be a verse more in the translation than the original; the
+consequence of which is, that the whole is constrained and obscure.
+Examinations and analyses of each piece, expositions of the plots, with
+notices of Plautus’ imitations of the ancient writers, and those of the
+moderns after him, are inserted in this work.
+
+In the same year in which Limiers published his version, Gueudeville
+brought out a translation of Plautus. It is a very free one; and Goujet
+says, it is “Plaute travesti, plutot que traduit.” He attempts to make his
+original more burlesque by exaggerations; and by singular hyperbolical
+expressions; the _obscœna_ are a good deal enhanced; and he has at the end
+formed a sort of table, or index, of the obscene passages, referring to
+their proper page, which may thus be found without perusing any other part
+of the drama. The professed object of the table is, that the reader may
+pass them over if he choose.
+
+A contemporary journal, comparing the two translations, observes,—“Il
+semble que M. Limiers s’attache davantage à son original, et qu’il en fait
+mieux sentir le véritable caractère; et que le Sieur Gueudeville est plus
+badin, plus vif, plus bouffon(589).” Fabricius passes on them nearly the
+same judgment(590).
+
+The _English_ were early acquainted with the plays of Plautus. It appears
+from Holinshed, that in the eleventh year of King Henry VIII.—that is, in
+1520—a comedy of Plautus was played before the King(591). We are informed
+by Miss Aikin, in her _Memoirs of the Court of Elizabeth_, that when that
+Queen visited Cambridge in 1564, she went on a Sunday morning to King’s
+Chapel, to hear a Latin sermon, _ad clerum_; “and in the evening, the body
+of this solemn edifice being converted into a temporary theatre, she was
+there gratified with a representation of the _Aulularia_ of Plautus(592).”
+It has been mentioned in the text, that, in 1595, there appeared a
+translation of the _Menæchmi_ of Plautus, by W. W.—initials which have
+generally been supposed to stand for William Warner, author of _Albion’s
+England_. In 1694, Echard published a prose translation of the three
+comedies which had been selected by Mad. Dacier—the _Amphitryon_,
+_Epidicus_, and _Rudens_. It is obvious, however, that he has more
+frequently translated from the French, than from his original author. His
+style, besides, is coarse and inelegant; and, while he aims at being
+familiar, he is commonly low and vulgar. Some passages of the _Amphitryon_
+he has translated in the coarsest dialogue of the streets:—“By the
+mackins, I believe Phœbus has been playing the good fellow, and’s asleep
+too! I’ll be hanged if he ben’t in for’t, and has took a little too much
+of the creature.” In every page, also, we find the most incongruous jumble
+of ancient and of modern manners. He talks of the Lord Chief Justice of
+Athens, of bridewell, and aldermen; and makes his heathen characters swear
+British and Christian oaths, such as, “By the Lord Harry!—’Fore
+George!—’Tis as true as the Gospel!”
+
+In the year 1746, Thomas Cooke, the well-known translator of Hesiod,
+published proposals for a complete translation of Plautus, but he printed
+only the _Amphitryon_. Dr Johnson has told, that Cooke lived twenty years
+on this translation of Plautus, for which he was always taking in
+subscriptions(593).
+
+In imitation of Colman, who, in his Terence, had introduced a new and
+elegant mode of translation in familiar blank verse, Mr Thornton, in 1667,
+published a version of seven of the plays after the same
+manner,—_Amphitryon_, _Miles Gloriosus_, _Captivi_, _Trinummus_,
+_Mercator_, _Aulularia_, _Rudens_. Of these, the translation of the
+_Mercator_ was furnished by Colman, and that of the _Captivi_ by Mr
+Warner. Thornton intended to have translated the remaining thirteen, but
+was prevented by death. The work, however, was continued by Mr. Warner,
+who had translated the _Captivi_. To both versions, there were subjoined
+remarks, chiefly collected from the best commentators, and from the notes
+of the French translators of Plautus.
+
+
+
+
+                                 TERENCE.
+
+
+The MSS. of Terence which were coeval with the age of the author, or
+shortly posterior to it, were corrupted from the same cause as the MSS. of
+Plautus. Varro says, that, in his time, the copies of Terence then
+existing were extremely corrupt. He is, however, one of the classics whose
+works cannot properly be said to have been discovered at the revival of
+literature, as, in fact, his comedies never were lost. They were commented
+on, during the later ages of the empire, by Æmilius Asper, Valerius
+Probus, Martius Salutaris, Flavius Caper, and Helenius Acro; and towards
+the end of the fifth century, Rufinus wrote a diatribe on the metres of
+Terence. Sulpicius Apollinaris, a grammarian of the second century,
+composed arguments to the plays, and Ælius Donatus commented on them in
+the fourth century. The person styling himself Calliopius, revised and
+amended, in the eighth century, a MS. which was long preserved in the
+Vatican. Eugraphius commented on Terence, again, in the tenth, and
+Calpurnius in the middle of the fifteenth century. Guiniforte delivered
+lectures on Terence at Novarra in 1430, and Filelfo at Florence about the
+same period(594). Petrarch, too, when Leontius Pilatus, disgusted with
+Italy, returned to his native country, gave him a copy of Terence as his
+travelling companion,—a foolish present, as Petrarch adds, for there is no
+resemblance between the most gloomy of all the Greeks, and the most lively
+of the Africans. As Petrarch at this time seems to have cordially disliked
+Leontius, it is not probable that the copy of Terence he gave him was very
+scarce. All this shows, that the six plays of Terence were not merely
+extant, but very common in Italy, during the dark ages. One of the oldest
+MSS. of Terence, and that which was probably used in the earliest printed
+editions, was preserved in the Vatican library: Fabricius has described it
+as written by Hrodogarius in the time of Charlemagne, and as revised by
+Calliopius(595). Another MS. of Terence in the Vatican library, is one
+which, in the sixteenth century, had fallen into the possession of
+Cardinal Bembo. It had been revised by Politian(596), who wrote on it, in
+his own hand, that he had never seen one more ancient:—“Ego, Angelus
+Politianus, homo vetustatis minime incuriosus, nullum me vidisse, ad hanc
+diem, codicem vetustiorem fateor.” Its age, when Fabricius wrote, in 1698,
+was, as that author testifies, more than a thousand years, which places
+its transcription at the latest in 698. In this MS. there is a division of
+verses which is not employed in that above mentioned, written by
+Hrodogarius. Politian corrected from it, with his own hand, a copy which
+was in the Laurentian library, and collated with it another, which
+subsequently belonged to Petrus Victorius. After the death of Cardinal
+Bembo, this ancient MS. came into the possession of Fulvius Ursinus, and
+was by him bequeathed to the Vatican library(597).
+
+There is much uncertainty with regard to the _Editio Princeps_ of Terence,
+and, indeed, with regard to most of the editions of his works which
+appeared during the fifteenth century. That printed by Mentelin at
+Strasburg, without date, but supposed to be 1468, seems now to be
+considered as having the best claims to priority(598). The Terence printed
+by Pynson in 1497, was, I believe, the first Latin classic published in
+this country. The earliest editions of Terence are without any separation
+of verses, the division of them having been first introduced in the
+edition of 1487, according to the arrangement made by Politian from
+Cardinal Bembo’s copy. Westerhovius, in the _prolegomena_ to his edition,
+1726, enumerates not fewer than 248 editions of Terence previous to his
+time. Though the presses of the Aldi (1517–21), the Stephenses (1529–52,
+&c.), and the Elzevirs (1635), were successively employed in these
+editions, the text of Terence does not seem to have engaged the attention
+of any of the most eminent scholars or critics of the sixteenth and
+seventeenth centuries, with the exception of Muretus. The edition of
+Faernus, (Florence, 1565,) for which various valuable MSS. were collated,
+became the foundation of almost all subsequent impressions, particularly
+that of Westerhovius, which is usually accounted the best edition of
+Terence. It is nevertheless declared, by Mr Dibdin, “to be more admirable
+for elaborate care and research, than the exhibition of any critical
+niceties in the construction of the text, or the illustration of difficult
+passages.” It contains the Commentaries of Donatus, Calpurnius, and
+Eugraphius, and there are prefixed the Life of Terence, attributed to
+Suetonius,—a dissertation of D. Heinsius, _Ad Horatii de Plauto et
+Terentio judicium_,—Evanthius, _De Tragœdiâ et Comœdiâ_,—and a treatise,
+compiled by the editor from the best authorities, concerning the scenic
+representations of the Romans.
+
+Bentley’s first edition of Terence was printed at Cambridge in the same
+year with that of Westerhovius. One of Bentley’s great objects was the
+reformation of the metres of Terence, concerning which he prefixed a
+learned dissertation. The boldness of his alterations on the text, which
+were in a great measure calculated to serve this purpose, drew down on
+him, in his own age, the appellation of “slashing Bentley,” and repeated
+castigation from subsequent editors.
+
+Of the more recent editions, that of Zeunius (Leipsic, 1774) is deservedly
+accounted the best in point of critical excellence. There are, however,
+three German editions still more recent; that by Schmieder, (Halle, 1794,)
+by Bothe, (Magdeburg, 1806,) and by Perlet, (Leipsic, 1821;) which last is
+chiefly remarkable for its great number of typographical errors—about as
+numerous as those in one of the old English _Pearl Bibles_.
+
+
+
+The plays of Terence being much less numerous than those of Plautus,
+translations of the whole of them appeared at an earlier period, both in
+Italian and French. The first complete _Italian_ translation of Terence
+was in prose. It is dedicated to Benedetto Curtio, by a person calling
+himself Borgofranco; but from the ambiguity of some expressions in this
+dedication, there has been a dispute, whether he be the author, or only
+the editor of the version—Fontanini supporting the former, and Apostolo
+Zeno the latter proposition(599). It was first printed at Venice, 1533;
+and Paitoni enumerates six subsequent editions of it in the course of the
+sixteenth century. The next version was that of Giovanni Fabrini, which,
+as we learn by the title, is rendered word for word from the original; it
+was printed at Venice, 1548. A third prose translation, published at Rome,
+1612, is dedicated to the Cardinal Borghese by the printer Zanetti, who
+mentions, that it was the work of an unknown author, which had fallen
+accidentally into his hands: Fontanini, however, and Apost. Zeno, have
+long since discovered, that the author was called Cristoforo Rosario.
+Crescimbeni speaks favourably of a version by the Marchioness of
+Malespini. Another lady, Luisa Bergalli, had translated in _verso
+sciolto_, and printed separately, some of the plays of Terence: These she
+collected, and, having completed the remainder, published them together at
+Venice, in 1733. In 1736, a splendid edition of a poetical translation of
+Terence, and accompanied by the Latin, was printed at Urbino, with figures
+of the actors, taken from a MS. preserved in the Vatican. It is written in
+_verso sciolto_, except the prologues, which are in _versi sdruccioli_.
+The author, who was Nicholas Fortiguerra, and who died before his version
+was printed, says, that the comedies are _nunc primum Italicis versibus
+redditæ_(600); but in this he had not been sufficiently informed, as his
+version was preceded by that of Luisa Bergalli, and by many separate
+translations of each individual play. A translation of two of Terence’s
+plays, the _Andria_ and _Eunuchus_, into _versi sdruccioli_, by Giustiano
+de Candia, was printed by Paullus Manutius in 1544(601). Three of
+Terence’s plays, the _Andria_, _Eunuchus_, and _Heautontimorumenos_, were
+subsequently translated in _versi sdruccioli_, by the Abbé Bellaviti, and
+published at Bassan in 1758.
+
+It is not certain who was the author of the first _French_ translation of
+Terence, or even at what period he existed. Du Verdier and Fabricius say,
+he was Octavien de Saint Gelais, Bishop of Angouleme, who lived in the
+reign of Charles VIII. This, however, is doubtful, since Pierre Grosnet, a
+French poet, contemporary with the Bishop, while mentioning the other
+classics which he had translated, says nothing of any version of Terence
+by him, but expressly mentions one by Gilles Cybile—
+
+  “Maistre Gilles nommé Cybile,
+  Il s’est montré très-fort habile:
+  Car il a tout traduit Therence
+  Ou il y a mainte sentence(602).”
+
+The author, whoever he may be, mentions, that the translation was made by
+order of the King; but he does not specify by which of the French monarchs
+the command was given. His work was first printed, but without date, by
+Anthony Verard, so well known as the printer of some of the earliest
+romances of chivalry; and as Verard died in 1520, it must have been
+printed before that date(603). It is in one volume folio, ornamented with
+figures in wood-cuts, and is entitled, _Le Grant Therence en François,
+tant en rime qu’en prose, avecques le Latin_. As this title imports, there
+is both a prose and verse translation; and the Latin text is likewise
+given. It is difficult to say which of the translations is worst; that in
+verse, which is in lines of eight syllables, is sometimes almost
+unintelligible, and the variation of masculine and feminine rhymes, is
+scarcely ever attended to.
+
+The translation, printed 1583, with the Latin text, and of which the
+author is likewise unknown, is little superior to that by which it was
+preceded. Beauchamp, in his _Recherches sur les Théatres de France_,
+mentions two other translations of the sixteenth century—one in 1566, the
+other in 1584. The first by Jean Bourlier, is in prose—the second is in
+rhyme, and is translated verse for verse. Mad. Dacier includes all the
+versions of the sixteenth century in one general censure, only excepting
+that of the _Eunuch_ by Baif, printed 1573, in his _jeux poëtiques_. It is
+in lines of eight and ten syllables, and was undertaken by order of Queen
+Catharine, mother of Charles IX. Mad. Dacier pronounces it to be a good
+translation, except that, in about twenty passages, the sense of the
+original author has been mistaken. It is remarked by Goujet, in his
+_Bibliothéque Françoise_, that if Mad. Dacier had been acquainted with the
+_Andrian_, by Bonaventure des Perriers, printed in 1537, she would have
+made an exception in favour of it also. Bonaventure was the valet of
+Margaret, Queen of Navarre, and after her death the editor of her tales,
+and himself the author of a collection in a similar taste. He wrote at a
+time when the French language was at its highest perfection, being
+purified from the coarseness which appeared in the romances of chivalry,
+and yet retaining that energy and simplicity, which it in a great measure
+lost, soon after the accession of the Bourbons. This version was one of
+Bonaventure’s first productions, as, in the _Avis aux Lecteurs_, he says,
+“Que c’etait son apprentissage:” he intended to have translated the whole
+plays of Terence, but was prevented by his tragical death. The same comedy
+chosen by Bonaventure des Perriers, was translated into prose by Charles
+Stephens, brother of the celebrated printers.
+
+The Abbé Marolles has succeeded no better in his translation of Terence,
+than in that of Plautus. We recognize in it the same heaviness—the same
+want of elegance and fidelity to the original. Chapelain remarks, “Que ce
+traducteur etoit l’Antipode du bon sens, et qu’il s’eloignoit partout de
+l’intelligence des auteurs qui avoient le malheur de passer par ses
+mains.” His translation appeared in 1659, in two volumes 8vo, accompanied
+by remarks, in the same taste as those with which he had loaded his
+Plautus.
+
+About this period, the Gentlemen of the Port-Royal, in France, paid
+considerable attention to the education of youth, and to the cultivation
+of classical learning. M. de Sacy, a distinguished member of that
+religious association, and well known in his day as the author of the
+_Heures de Port-Royal_, translated into prose the _Andria_, _Adelphi_, and
+_Phormio_(604). This version, which he printed in 1647, under the assumed
+name of M. de Saint-Aubin, is much praised in the _Parnasse Reformé_, and
+the _Jugemens des Sçavans_. There were many subsequent editions of it, and
+some even after the appearance of the translation by Mad. Dacier. The
+version of the other three comedies, by the Sieur de Martignac, was
+intended, and announced as a supplement, or continuation of the work of M.
+de Sacy.
+
+It still remains for me to mention the translation of Terence by Mad.
+Dacier. This lady was advised against the undertaking by her friends, but
+she was determined to persevere(605). She rose at five o’clock every
+morning, during a whole winter, in the course of which she completed four
+comedies; but having perused them at the end of some months, she thought
+them too much laboured and deficient in ease. She therefore threw them
+into the fire, and, with more moderation, recommenced her labour, which
+she at length completed, with satisfaction to herself and the public. Her
+translation was printed in 1688, 3 vols. 12mo, accompanied with the Latin
+text, a preface, a life of the poet, and remarks on each of his pieces.
+She has not entered, as in her translations of Plautus, into a particular
+examination of every scene, but has contented herself with some general
+observations. This lady has also made considerable changes as to the
+commencement and termination of the scenes and acts; and her conjectures
+on these points are said to have been afterwards confirmed by an
+authoritative and excellent MS., discovered in the _Bibliothéque de
+Roi_(606). The first edition was improved on, in one subsequently printed
+at Rotterdam in 1717, which was also ornamented with figures from two MSS.
+There is yet a more recent translation by Le Monnier, 1771, which is now
+accounted the best.
+
+The first translation which appeared in this country, and which is
+entitled “Terence in Englysh,” is without date, but is supposed to have
+been printed in 1520. It was followed by Bernard’s translation,
+1598—Hoole’s, 1670—Echard’s, 1694—and Dr Patrick’s, 1745. All those prose
+versions are flat and obsolete, and in many places unfaithful to their
+original. At length Colman published a translation in familiar blank
+verse, in which he has succeeded extremely well. He has seldom mistaken
+the sense of his author, and has frequently attained to his polished ease
+of style and manner. The notes, which have been judiciously selected from
+former commentators, with some observations of his own, form a valuable
+part of the work.
+
+
+
+
+                                LUCILIUS.
+
+
+F. Douza was the first who collected the fragments of this satiric poet,
+and formed them into a _cento_. Having shewn his MS. and notes to Joseph
+Scaliger, he was encouraged to print them, and an edition accordingly came
+forth at Leyden, in 1597. It soon, however, became very scarce. A single
+copy of it was accidentally discovered by Vulpius, in one of the principal
+public libraries of Italy; but, owing to the place which it had occupied,
+it had been so destroyed by constant eaves-dropping from the roof of the
+house, that when he laid his hands on it, it was scarcely legible. Having
+restored, however, and amended the text as far as possible, he reprinted
+it at Padua in 1735.
+
+
+
+
+                                LUCRETIUS.
+
+
+The work of Lucretius, like the Æneid of Virgil, had not received the
+finishing hand of its author, at the period of his death. The tradition
+that Cicero revised it, and gave it to the public, does not rest on any
+authority more ancient than that of Eusebius; and, had the story been
+true, it would probably have been mentioned in some part of Cicero’s
+voluminous writings, or those of the early critics. Eichstädt(607), while
+he denies the revisal by Cicero, is of opinion that it had been corrected
+by some critic or grammarian; and that thus two MSS., differing in many
+respects from each other, had descended to posterity—the one as it came
+from the hand of the poet, and the other as amended by the reviser. This
+he attempts to prove from the great inequality of the language—now
+obsolete and rugged—now polished and refined—which difference can only, he
+thinks, be accounted for, from the original and corrected copies having
+been mixed together in some of those middle-age transcriptions, on which
+the first printed editions were formed. The old grammarians, too, he
+alleges, frequently quote verses of Lucretius, which no longer compose
+parts of his poem, and which therefore must have been altogether omitted
+by the corrector; and, finally, the readings in the different MSS. are so
+widely different, that it is incredible that the variations could have
+proceeded from the transcribers or interpolators, and could have been
+occasioned only by the author or reviser of the poem.
+
+But though not completely polished by the author, there is no ground for
+the conjecture, that the poem ever consisted of more than the present six
+books—an opinion which seems to have originated in an orthographical
+error, and which is contradictory to the very words of the poet
+himself.(608)
+
+The work of Lucretius does not appear to have been popular at Rome, and
+the MSS. of it were probably not very numerous in the latter ages of the
+empire. It is quoted by Raban Maur, Abbot of Fulda, in his book _De
+Universo_(609), which was written in the ninth century. The copies of it,
+however, seem to have totally disappeared, previous to the revival of
+literature; but at length Poggio Bracciolini, while attending the Council
+of Constance, whither he repaired in 1414, discovered a MS. in the
+monastery of St Gal, about twenty miles from that city(610). It is from
+the following lines, in a Latin elegy, by Cristoforo Landini, on the death
+of this celebrated ornament of his age, that we learn to whom we are
+indebted for the first of philosophic poems. Landini, recording the
+discoveries of his friend, exclaims—
+
+  “Illius manu, nobis, doctissime rhetor,
+    Integer in Latium, Quintiliane, redis;
+  Et te, Lucreti, longo post tempore, tandem
+    Civibus et Patriæ reddit habere tuæ.”
+
+Poggio sent the newly-discovered treasure to Niccolo Niccoli, who kept the
+original MS. fourteen years. Poggio earnestly demanded it back, and at
+length obtained it; but before it was restored, Niccoli made from it, with
+his own hand, a transcript, which is still extant in the Laurentian
+library(611).
+
+The edition published at Verona, 1486, which is not a very correct one,
+was long accounted the _Editio Princeps_ of Lucretius. A more ancient
+impression, however, printed at Brescia, 1473, has recently become known
+to bibliographers. It was edited by Ferrandus from a single MS. copy,
+which was the only one he could procure. But though he had not the
+advantage of collating different MSS., the edition is still considered
+valuable, for its accuracy and excellent readings. There are, I believe,
+only three copies of it now extant, two of which are at present in
+England. The text of Lucretius was much corrupted in the subsequent
+editions of the fifteenth century, and even in that of Aldus, published at
+Venice in 1500, of which Avancius was the editor, and which was the first
+_Latin_ classic printed by Aldus(612). This was partly occasioned by the
+second edition of 1486 being unfortunately chosen as the basis of all of
+them, instead of the prior and preferable edition, printed at Brescia. In
+a few, but very few readings, the second edition has improved on the
+first, as, for example, in the beautiful description of the helplessness
+of a new-born infant—
+
+  “Navita, nudus humi jacet infans, _indigus_ omni
+  Vitali auxilio,” ——
+
+where the Brescian edition reads _indignus_, instead of _indigus_. And
+again, in the fifth book—
+
+  “Nec poterat quenquam placidi pellacia ponti,
+  Subdola _pellicere_ in fraudem, ridentibus undis,”
+
+where the Brescian edition reads _pollicere_, instead of _pellicere_,
+which seems to be wrong. At length Baptista Pius, by aid of some
+emendations of his preceptor, Philippus Beroaldus, to which he had access,
+and by a laborious collation of MSS., succeeded in a great measure in
+restoring the depraved text of his author to its original purity. His
+edition, printed at Bologna in 1511, and the two Aldine editions,
+published in 1515, under the superintendence of Nevagero, who was a much
+better editor than Avancius, continued to be regarded as those of highest
+authority till 1563, when Lambinus printed at Paris an edition, prepared
+from the collation of five original MSS., and all the previous editions of
+any note, except the first and second, which seem to have been unknown to
+him. The text, as he boasts in the preface, was corrected in 800 different
+places, and was accompanied by a very ample commentary. Lambinus was
+succeeded by Gifanius, who was more a grammarian than an acute or tasteful
+critic. He amassed together, without discrimination, the notes and
+conjectures on Lucretius, of all the scholars of his own and the preceding
+age. Douza, in a sot of satirical verses, accused him of having
+appropriated and published in his edition, without acknowledgment, some
+writings of L. Fruterius, which had been committed to him on death-bed, in
+order to be printed. His chief merit lies in what relates to grammatical
+interpretation, and the explanation of ancient customs, and in a more
+ample collection of parallel passages than had hitherto been made. The
+editions of D. Pareus, (Frankfort, 1631,) and of Nardius, (Florence,
+1647,) were not better than that of Gifanius; and the Delphin edition of
+Lucretius, by M. Le Fay, has long been known as the very worst of the
+class to which it belongs. “Notæ ejus,” says Fabricius, “plenæ sunt
+pudendis hallucinationibus.” Indeed, so much ashamed of it were his
+colleagues, and those who directed this great undertaking of the Delphin
+classics, that they attempted, though unsuccessfully, to suppress it.
+
+Nearly a century and a half had elapsed, from the first publication of the
+edition of Lambinus, without a tolerable new impression of Lucretius being
+offered to the public, when Creech, better known as the translator of
+Lucretius, printed, in 1695, a Latin edition of the poet, to whose
+elucidation he had devoted his life. His study of the Epicurean system,
+and intimate acquaintance with the works of Gassendi, fully qualified him
+for the philosophic illustration of his favourite author. On the whole,
+however, Havercamp’s edition, Leyden, 1725, is the best which has yet
+appeared of Lucretius. It was prepared from the collation of twenty-five
+MSS., as well as of the most ancient editions, and contained not only the
+whole annotations of Creech and Lambinus, but also some notes of Isaac
+Vossius, which had not previously been printed. The prefaces of the most
+important editions are prefixed; and the only fault which has been found
+with it is, that in his new readings the editor has sometimes injured the
+harmony of the versification. Lucretius certainly can not be considered as
+one of the classics who have been most fortunate in their editors and
+commentators. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, he failed to
+obtain the care of the most pre-eminent critics of the age, and was thus
+left to the conjectures of second-rate scholars. It was his lot to be
+assigned to the most ignorant and barbarous of the Delphin editors; and
+his catastrophe has been completed by falling into the hands of Wakefield,
+whose edition is one of the most injudicious and tasteless that ever
+issued from the press. In preparing this work, which is dedicated to Mr
+Fox, the editor had the use of several MSS. in the University of Cambridge
+and the British Museum; and also some MS. notes of Bentley, found in a
+copy of a printed edition, which originally belonged to Dr Mead. In his
+preface, he expresses himself with much asperity against Mr Cumberland,
+for withholding from him some other MS. notes of Bentley, which were in
+his possession. It would have been fortunate for him if he had never seen
+any of Bentley’s annotations, since many of his worst readings are derived
+from that source. By an assiduous perusal of MSS. and the old editions, he
+has restored as much of the ancient Latin orthography, as renders the
+perusal of the poet irksome, though, by his own confession, he has not in
+this been uniform and consistent; and he has most laboriously amassed,
+particularly from Virgil, a multitude of supposed parallel passages, many
+of which have little resemblance to the lines with which they are
+compared. The long Latin poem, addressed to Fox, lamenting the horrors of
+war, does not compensate for the very brief and unsatisfactory notices, as
+to every thing that regards the life and writings of the poet, and the
+previous editions of his works. The commentary is dull, beyond the
+proverbial dulness of commentaries; and wherever there was a disputed or
+doubtful reading, that one is generally selected, which is most tame and
+unmeaning—most grating to the ear, and most foreign, both to the spirit of
+the poet, and of poetry in general. I shall just select one instance from
+each book, as an example of the manner in which the finest lines have been
+utterly destroyed by the alteration of a single word, or even letter, and
+I shall choose such passages as are familiar to every one. In his
+magnificent eulogy of Epicurus, in the first book, Lucretius, in
+admiration of the enlightened boldness of that philosopher, described him
+as one—
+
+  “Quem neque fama Deûm, nec fulmina, nec minitanti
+  Murmure compressit cœlum.”
+
+The expression _Fama Deûm_ implies, that Epicurus could not be restrained
+by that imposing character, with which deep-rooted prejudice, and the
+authority of fable, had invested the gods of Olympus—a thought highly
+poetical, and at the same time panegyrical of the mighty mind which had
+disregarded all this superstitious renown. But Wakefield, by the
+alteration of a single letter, strips the passage both of its sense and
+poetry—he reads,
+
+  “Quem neque _fana_ Deûm, nec fulmina, nec minitanti,”
+
+which imports that the determined mind of Epicurus could not be controlled
+by the temples of the gods, which, if it has any meaning at all, is one
+most frigid and puerile. This innovation, which the editor calls, in the
+note, _egregiam emendationem_, is not supported, as far as he informs us,
+by the authority of any ancient MS. or edition whatever, but it was so
+written on the margin of the copy of Lucretius, which had belonged to
+Bentley, where it was placed, as Wakefield admits, _nude ascripta et
+indefensa_. In the second book, Lucretius maintaining that absence of
+splendour is no diminution of happiness, says,
+
+  “Si non aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per ædes, &c.
+    * * * * *
+  Nec citharæ reboant laqueata aurataque _tecta_.”
+
+But Wakefield, instead of _tecta_, reads _templa_, and justifies his
+reading, not on the authority of any ancient MSS., but by showing that
+_templa_ is used for _tecta_ by some authors, and applied to private
+dwellings! The third book commences very spiritedly with an eulogy of
+Epicurus:
+
+  “E tenebris tantis tam clarum extollere lumen
+  Qui primus potuisti, illustrans commoda vitæ,
+  Te sequor, O Graiæ gentis decus!”
+
+This sudden and beautiful apostrophe is weakened and destroyed by a change
+to
+
+  “O tenebris tantis tam clarum extollere lumen.”
+
+The lines are rendered worse by the interjection being thus twice repeated
+in the course of three verses. In the fourth book, Lucretius, alluding to
+the merits of his own work, says,
+
+  “Deinde, quod obscurâ de re tam lucida _pango_
+  Carmina, Musæo contingens cuncta lepore.”
+
+Here the word _pango_ presents us with the image of the poet at his lyre,
+pouring forth his mellifluous verses, and it has besides, in its sound,
+something of the twang of a musical instrument. Wakefield, however, has
+changed the word into _pando_, which reminds us only of transcription and
+publication. Lucretius, in book fifth, assigns as the reason why mankind
+supposed that the abode of the gods was in heaven,
+
+  “Per cœlum volvi quia nox et luna videtur,
+  Luna, dies, et nox, et noctis signa _serena_!”
+
+This last word Wakefield has changed into _severa_, which greatly impairs
+the beauty of the line. _Noctis signa serena_, are the stars and planets;
+but if instead of these be substituted the _signa severa_, the passage
+becomes tautological, for the _signa severa_ are introduced immediately
+afterwards in the line
+
+  “Noctivagæque faces cœli flammæque volantes.”
+
+I have only selected passages where Wakefield has departed from the usual
+readings, without support from any ancient edition or authoritative MS.
+whatever. The instances where, in a variation of the MSS. and editions, he
+has chosen the worse reading, are innumerable.
+
+The first edition of Wakefield’s Lucretius was printed at London in 1796;
+the second at Glasgow, 1813, which is rendered more valuable than the
+first, by a running collation in the last volume of the readings of the
+_Editio Princeps_, printed at Brescia; that of Verona, 1486—Venice
+1495—the Aldine edition, 1500—and the Bipontine, 1782, which places in a
+very striking point of view the superiority of the _Editio Princeps_ over
+those by which it was immediately succeeded. At the end of this edition,
+there are published some MS. notes and emendations, taken from Bentley’s
+own copy of Faber’s edition of Lucretius, in the library of the British
+Museum. They are not of much consequence, and though a few of them are
+doubtless improvements on Faber’s text, yet, taken as a whole, they would
+injure the lines of the poet, should they be unfortunately adopted in
+subsequent editions.
+
+Eichstädt, in his recent impression, published at Leipsic, has chiefly
+followed the text of Wakefield, but has occasionally deviated from it when
+he thought the innovations too bold. He had the advantage of consulting
+the _Editio Princeps_, which no modern editor enjoyed. He has prefixed
+Wakefield’s prefaces, and a long dissertation of his own, on the Life and
+Poetical Writings of Lucretius, in which he scarcely does justice to the
+poetical genius of his author. The first volume, containing the text and a
+very copious verbal index, was printed at Leipsic in 1801. It is intended
+that the second volume should comprise the commentary, but it has not yet
+been published.
+
+There is hardly any poet more difficult to translate happily than
+Lucretius. In the abstruse and jejune philosophical discussions which
+occupy so large a proportion of the poem, it is hardly possible, without a
+sacrifice of perspicuity, to retain the harmony of versification; and, in
+the ornamental passages, the diction is so simple, pure, and melodious,
+that it is an enterprize of no small difficulty to translate with fidelity
+and elegance.
+
+In consequence, perhaps, of the freedom of his philosophical, and a
+misrepresentation of his moral tenets, Lucretius was longer of being
+rendered into the _Italian_ language than almost any other classic. It was
+near the end of the seventeenth century, before any version was executed,
+when a translation into _verso sciolto_, was undertaken by Marchetti,
+Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy in the University of Pisa.
+Marchetti has evidently translated from the edition of Lambinus—the best
+which had at that time appeared. His version, however, though completed in
+the seventeenth century, was not published till 1717, three years after
+his death, when it was printed, with the date of London, under the care of
+a person styling himself Antinoo Rullo, with a prefatory dedication to the
+great Prince Eugene, in which the editor terms it, “la più grande, e la
+più bella poetic’ opera che nel passato secolo nascesse ad accrescere un
+nuovo lume di gloria ad Italia.” Public opinion, both in Italy and other
+countries, has confirmed that of the editor, and it is universally
+admitted, that the translator has succeeded in faithfully preserving the
+spirit and meaning of the Latin original, without forfeiting any of the
+beauties of the Italian language. It has been said, that such was the
+freedom and freshness of this performance, that unless previously informed
+as to the fact, no one could distinguish whether the Latin or Italian
+Lucretius was the original. Graziana, himself a celebrated poet, who had
+perused it in MS., thus justly characterizes its merits, in a letter
+addressed to the author:—“you have translated this poem with great
+felicity and ease; unfolding its sublime and scientific materials in a
+delicate style and elegant manner; and, what is still more to be admired,
+your diction seldom runs into a lengthened paraphrase, and never without
+the greatest judgment.” The perusal of this admirable translation was
+forbidden by the inquisition, but the prohibition did not prevent a
+subsequent impression of it from being printed at Lausanne, in 1761. This
+edition, which is in two volumes, contains an Italian translation of
+Polignac’s Anti-Lucretius, by F. Maria Ricci. The editor, Deregni, indeed
+declares that he would not have ventured to publish any translation of
+Lucretius, however excellent, unless accompanied by this powerful
+antidote. There are prefixed to this edition historical and critical
+notices; as also the preface, and the _Protesta del Traduttore_, which had
+been inserted in the first edition.
+
+Most of the _French_ translations of Lucretius are in prose. Of all sorts
+of poetry, that called didactic, which consists in the detail of a regular
+system, or in rational precepts, which flow from each other in a connected
+train of thought, suffers least by being transfused into prose. Almost
+every didactic poet, however, enriches his work with such ornaments as
+spring out of his subject, though not strictly attached to it; but in no
+didactic poem are these passages so numerous and so charming as in that of
+Lucretius; and, accordingly, in a prose translation, while all that is
+systematic or preceptive may be rendered with propriety, all that belongs
+to embellishment, and which forms the principal grace of the original,
+appears impertinent and misplaced. The earliest translation of Lucretius
+into the French language, was by Guillaume des Autels, about the middle of
+the sixteenth century. The Abbé Morolles, already mentioned as the
+translator of Plautus and Terence, turned Lucretius into French prose: Of
+this version there were two editions, the first of which was printed in
+1650. It was addressed to Christina, Queen of Sweden; and, as the author
+had been very liberal to this princess in compliment, he hoped she would
+be equally liberal in reward; but he was much deceived, and of this
+disappointment he bitterly complains in his Memoirs. Of this translation,
+Goujet remarks, that one is constantly obliged to have recourse to the
+Latin text, in order to comprehend its meaning(613). It was a good deal
+amended, however, in the second edition, 1659, under circumstances of
+which the author introduces an account in the list of his works subjoined
+to his translation of Virgil. Gassendi, who had profoundly studied the
+system of Epicurus and Lucretius, having procured a copy of Marolles’
+first edition, he sent a few days before his death for the author, and
+pointed out to him, with his own hand, those passages in which he thought
+his translation defective, and also supplied him with a number of notes in
+illustration of the poet. The Abbé was thus provided with ample materials
+for the improvement of his work, and so pleased was he with his second
+edition, that he got a prohibition against reprinting the first introduced
+into the _Privilége_ of the second. He inserted in it a _Discours
+Apologetique_, defending the translating and reading of Lucretius, and
+prefixed a dedication to M. Lamoignon, President of the Parliament, whom
+he now substituted for Queen Christina. Moliere having seen the first
+edition of Marolles’ prose translation, was thereby induced to render
+Lucretius into French verse. His original intention was to have versified
+the whole poem, but he afterwards confined his rhymes to the more
+decorative parts, and delivered the rest in plain prose. As he proceeded
+with his version, he uniformly rehearsed it both to Chapelle and Rohaut,
+who jointly testified their approbation of the performance. But it was
+destined to perish when brought very near its completion. A valet of the
+translator, who had charge of his dress-wig, being in want of paper to put
+it into curl, laid hold of a loose sheet of the version, which was
+immediately rent to pieces, and thrown into the fire as soon as it had
+performed its office. Moliere was one of the most irritable of the _genus
+irritabile vatum_, and the accident was too provoking to be endured. He
+resolved never to translate another line, and threw the whole remainder of
+his version into the flames, which had thus consumed a part of it(614).
+This abortive attempt of Moliere incited the Abbé Marolles to render the
+whole of Lucretius into verse. He completed this task in less than four
+months, and published the fruits of his labour in 1677. Rapidity of
+execution, however, is the only merit of which he has to boast. His
+translation is harsh, flat, and inverted; and it is also very diffuse: The
+poem of Lucretius consists of 7389 lines, and the version of not less than
+12338(615).
+
+Lucretius was subsequently translated into prose by the Baron des
+Coutures. His version, printed at Paris 1685, is somewhat better in point
+of style than those of Marolles, but is not more faithful to the original,
+being extremely paraphrastic. A Life of Lucretius, drawn up from the
+materials furnished by Hubert, Gifanius, Lambinus, and other commentators,
+is prefixed, and to every book is appended a small body of notes, which
+shew that the author was better acquainted with his subject than Marolles.
+Still, however, the poem of Lucretius was not much known in France during
+the seventeenth century, either in the original or translated form.
+Chaulieu, one of the most elegant and polished poets of that age, was so
+little acquainted with the moral lessons which it inculcated, as to write
+the following lines:—
+
+  —— “Epicure et Lucrece
+  M’ont appris que la Sagesse
+  Veut qu’au sortir d’un repas,
+  Ou des bras de sa maîtresse,
+  Content l’on aille là bas.”
+
+At length La Grange translated Lucretius in 1768, and Le Blanc de Guillet
+in 1788. Brunet speaks highly of the version of La Grange, which he seems
+to think is the best in the French language, and he says that of Le Blanc
+de Guillet is _peu recherché_. Mr Good, in mentioning the various
+translations of Lucretius, does not allude to the production of La Grange,
+but speaks highly of the version of Le Blanc de Guillet. He is sometimes,
+he admits, incorrect, and still more frequently obscure: “On the whole,
+however,” he continues, “it is a work of great merit, and ranks second
+amid the translations of Lucretius, which have yet appeared in any
+nation:” Of course, it ranges immediately next to that of Marchetti. This
+version is accompanied with the Latin text in alternate pages. It is
+decorated with plates, illustrated by notes, and introduced by a
+comprehensive preliminary discourse, which contains a biography of the
+original author, drawn up from Gifanius and Creech, and also some general
+observations on the Epicurean philosophy.
+
+The first attempt to transfer the poem of Lucretius into the _English_
+language, was made by Evelyn, the celebrated author of the _Sylva_. It was
+one of his earliest productions, having been printed in 1656. It was
+accompanied by an appendix of notes, which show considerable acquaintance
+with his subject, and there are prefixed to it complimentary letters or
+verses by Waller, Fanshaw, Sir Richard Brown, and Christopher Wasse.
+Evelyn commenced his arduous task with great enthusiasm, a due admiration
+of his original, and anxious desire to do it full justice. On actual
+trial, however, he became conscious of his own inability to produce, as he
+expresses it, “any traduction to equal the elegancy of the original;” and
+he accordingly closed his labours with the first book. To this resolution,
+the negligent manner in which his specimen of the translation was printed,
+contributed, as he alleges, in no small degree. Prefixed to the copy in
+the library at Wotton, is this note in his own handwriting: “Never was
+book so abominably misused by the printer; never copy so negligently
+surveyed, by one who undertook to look over the proof-sheets with all
+exactness and care, namely, Dr Triplet, well known for his ability, and
+who pretended to oblige me in my absence, and so readily offered himself.
+This good I received by it, that publishing it vainly, its ill success at
+the printer’s discouraged me with troubling the world with the rest(616).”
+This pretended disgust, however, at the typography of his Lucretius, was
+probably a pretext. It is more likely that he was deterred from the
+farther execution of his version, either by its want of success, or by the
+hints which he received from some of his friends concerning the moral and
+religious danger of his undertaking. “For your Lucretius,” says Jeremy
+Taylor, in a letter to him, dated 16th April, 1656, “I perceive you have
+suffered the importunity of your too kind friends to prevail with you. I
+will not say to you that your Lucretius is as far distant from the
+severity of a Christian as the fair Ethiopian was from the duty of Bishop
+Heliodorus; for indeed it is nothing but what may become the labours of a
+Christian gentleman, those things only abated which our evil age needs
+not: for which also I hope you either have by notes, or will by preface,
+prepare a sufficient antidote; but since you are engaged in it, do not
+neglect to adorn it, and take what care of it it can require or need; for
+that neglect will be a reproof of your own act, and look as if you did it
+with an unsatisfied mind; and then you may make that to be wholly a sin,
+from which, only by prudence and charity, you could before be advised to
+abstain. But, sir, if you will give me leave, I will impose such a penance
+upon you, for your publication of Lucretius, as shall neither displease
+God nor you; and since you are busy in these things which may minister
+directly to learning, and indirectly to error, or the confidences of men,
+who, of themselves, are apt enough to hide their vices in irreligion, I
+know you will be willing, and will suffer to be entreated, to employ the
+same pen in the glorification of God, and the ministries of eucharist and
+prayer(617).”
+
+In 1682, Creech, who was deterred by no such religious scruples, published
+his translation of the whole poem of Lucretius. As a scholar, he was
+eminently qualified for the arduous undertaking in which he had engaged:
+but he wrote with such haste, that his production everywhere betrays the
+inaccuracies of an author who acquiesces in the first suggestions of his
+mind, and who is more desirous of finishing, than ambitious of finishing
+well. Besides, he is at all times rather anxious to communicate the simple
+meaning of his original, than to exhibit any portion of the ornamental
+garb in which it is arrayed. Hence, though generally faithful to his
+author, he is almost everywhere deficient in one of the most striking
+characteristics of the Roman poet—grandeur and felicity of expression. He
+is often tame, prosaic, and even doggerel; and he sometimes discovers the
+conceits of a vitiated taste, in the most direct opposition to the simple
+character and majestic genius of his Roman original. Pope said, “that
+Creech had greatly hurt his translation of Lucretius, by imitating Cowley,
+and bringing in turns even into some of the most grand parts(618).” It is
+also remarked by Dr Drake, “that in this version the couplet has led in
+almost every page to the most ridiculous redundancies. A want of taste,
+however, in the selection of language, is as conspicuous in Creech as a
+deficiency of skill and address in the management of his
+versification(619).” The ample notes with which the translation is
+accompanied, are chiefly extracted from the works of Gassendi. A number of
+commendatory poems are prefixed, and among others one from Evelyn, in
+which he acknowledges, that Creech had succeeded in the glorious
+enterprize in which he himself had failed. Dryden was also much pleased
+with Creech’s translation, but this did not hinder him from versifying
+some of the higher and more ornamental passages, to which Creech had
+hardly done justice, as those at the beginning of the first and second
+books, the concluding part of the third book, against the fear of death,
+and of the fourth concerning the nature of love. On these fine passages
+Dryden bestowed the ease, the vigour, and harmony of his muse; but though
+executed with his accustomed spirit, his translations want the majestic
+solemn colouring of Lucretius, and are somewhat licentious and
+paraphrastic. For this, however, he accounts in his Poetical Miscellanies,
+in mentioning his translations in comparison with the version of Creech.
+“The ways of our translation,” he observes, “are very different—he follows
+Lucretius more closely than I have done, which became an interpreter to
+the whole poem, I take more liberty, because it best suited with my
+design, which was to make him as pleasing as I could. He had been too
+voluminous had he used my method in so long a work, and I had certainly
+taken his, had I made it my business to translate the whole.”
+
+The translations by Creech and Dryden are both in rhyme. That of Mr Good,
+printed in 1805, is in blank verse, and it may well be doubted if this
+preference was conducive to the successful execution of his purpose. The
+translation is accompanied with the original text of Lucretius, printed
+from Wakefield’s edition, and very full notes are subjoined, containing
+passages exhibiting imitations of Lucretius by succeeding poets. The
+preface includes notices of preceding editions of his author, and the
+explanation of his own plan. Then follow a Life of Lucretius, and an
+Appendix to the Life, comprehending an analysis and defence of the system
+of Epicurus, with a comparative sketch of most other philosophical
+theories, both ancient and modern.
+
+The translation of Mr Good was succeeded, in 1813, by that of Dr Busby,
+which is in rhyme, and is introduced by enormous _prolegomena_ on the Life
+and Genius of Lucretius, and the Philosophy and Morals of his Poem.
+
+
+
+
+                                CATULLUS.
+
+
+The MSS. of Catullus were defaced and imperfect, as far back as the time
+of Aulus Gellius(620), who lived in the reigns of Adrian and the
+Antonines; and there were _variæ lectiones_ in his age, as well as in the
+fifteenth century. There was a MS. of Catullus extant at Verona in the
+tenth century which was perused by the Bishop Raterius, who came from
+beyond the Alps, and who refers to it in his Discourses as a work he had
+never seen till his arrival at Verona. Another was possessed in the
+fourteenth century by Pastrengo, a Veronese gentleman, and a friend of
+Petrarch(621), who quotes it twice in his work _De Originibus_; but these
+and all other MSS. had entirely disappeared amid the confusions with which
+Italy was at that time agitated, and Catullus may, therefore, be
+considered as one of the classics brought to light at the revival of
+literature. The MS. containing the poems of Catullus was not found in
+Italy, but in one of the monasteries of France or Germany, (Scaliger says
+of France,) in the course of the fifteenth century, and according to
+Maffei, in 1425(622). All that we know concerning its discovery is
+contained in a barbarous Latin epigram, written by Guarinus of Verona, who
+chose to give his information on the subject in an almost unintelligible
+riddle. It was prefixed to an edition of Catullus, printed in Italy 1472,
+where it is entitled _Hextichum Guarini Veronensis Oratoris Clariss. in
+libellum V. Catulli ejus concivis_:
+
+  “Ad Patriam venio longis de finibus exul:
+    Causa mei reditûs compatriota fuit.
+  Scilicet a calamis tribuit cui Francia nomen,
+    Quique notat turbæ prætereuntis iter.
+  Quo licet ingenio vestrum celebrate Catullum
+    Quovis sub modio clausa papyrus erat.”
+
+The first line explains that the MS. was brought to Italy from beyond the
+Alps, and the second that it was discovered by a countryman of Catullus,
+that is, by a citizen of Verona. The third line contains the grand
+_conundrum_. Some critics have supposed that it points out the name of a
+monastery where the MS. was discovered; others, that it designates the
+name of the person who found it. Lessing is of this last opinion; and,
+according to his interpretation, the line implies, that it was discovered
+by some one whose name is the French word for quills or pens, that is,
+_plumes_. The name nearest this is Plumatius, on which foundation Lessing
+attributes the discovery of Catullus to Bernardinus Plumatius, a great
+scholar and physician of Verona, who flourished during the last half of
+the fifteenth century(623). This conjecture of Lessing was better founded
+than he himself seems to have been aware, as the second syllable in the
+name Plumatius is not remote from the French verb _hater_, which, in one
+sense, as the epigram expresses it—
+
+  “Notat turbæ prætereuntis iter.”
+
+Lucius Pignorius, who thinks that these lines were not written by Guarinus
+of Verona, but that the MS. was discovered by him, also conjectures that
+it was found in a barn, since it is said in the last line, that it was
+concealed _sub modio_, and bushels are nowhere but in barns(624). This is
+taking the line in its most literal signification, but the expression
+probably was meant only as proverbial.
+
+The wretched situation in which this MS. was found, and the circumstance
+of its being the only one of any antiquity extant, sufficiently accounts
+for the numerous and evident corruptions of the text of Catullus, and for
+the editions of that poet presenting a greater number of various and
+contradictory readings than those of almost any other classic.
+
+After this MS. was brought to Italy, it fell into the hands of Guarinus of
+Verona, who took much pains in correcting it, and it was further amended
+by his son Baptista Guarinus, as a third person of the family, Alexander
+Guarinus, informs us, in the _proœmium_ to his edition of Catullus, 1521,
+addressed to Alphonso, third Duke of Ferrara. Baptista Guarinus, as
+Alexander farther mentions in his _proœmium_, published an edition of
+Catullus from the MS. which he had taken so much pains to correct, but
+without any commentary. This edition, however, has now entirely
+disappeared; and that of 1472, printed by Spira, at Venice, in which
+Catullus is united with Tibullus and Propertius, is accounted the _Editio
+Princeps_. The different editions in which these poets have appeared
+conjoined, will be more conveniently enumerated hereafter: both in them,
+and in the impressions of Catullus printed separately, the editors had
+departed widely from the corrected text of Baptista Guarinus. Accordingly,
+Alexander Guarinus, in 1521, printed an edition of Catullus, with the view
+of restoring the genuine readings of his father and grandfather, who had
+wrought on the ancient MS. which was the prototype of all the others. It
+would appear, however, that the erroneous readings had become inveterate.
+Maffei, in his _Verona Illustrata_(625), points out the absurd and
+unauthorized alterations of Vossius and Scaliger on the pure readings of
+the Guarini.
+
+Muretus took charge of an edition of Catullus, which was printed by the
+younger Aldus Manutius in 1558. This production is not accounted such as
+might be expected from the consummate critic and scholar by whom it was
+prepared. Isaac Vossius had commented on Catullus; but his annotations lay
+concealed for many years after his death, till they were at length brought
+to light by his amanuensis Beverland, who, by means of this valuable
+acquisition, was enabled to prepare the best edition which had yet
+appeared of Catullus, and which was first printed in London in 1684. His
+commentary was on every point profoundly learned.—“Poetam,” says Harles,
+“commentario eruditissimo, ita tamen ut inverecundiâ illi interdum haud
+cederet, illustravit.” Vulpius published a yet better edition at Padua, in
+1737, in the preparation of which he made great use of the _Editio
+Princeps_. In the notes, he has introduced a new and most agreeable
+species of commentary,—illustrating his author by parallel passages from
+the ancient and modern poets, particularly the Italian; not such parallel
+passages as Wakefield has amassed, where the words _qui_ or _atque_ occur
+in both, but where there is an obvious imitation or resemblance in the
+thought or image. He has also prefixed a diatribe _De Metris Catullianis_.
+In the year 1738, a curious fraud was practised with regard to Catullus.
+Carradini de Allio, a scholar of some note, published at Venice an
+edition, which he pretended to have printed from an ancient MS.
+accidentally discovered by him in a pottery, without a cover or
+title-page, and all besmeared with filth. It was dedicated to the Elector
+of Bavaria; and though one of the most impudent cheats of the sort that
+had been practised since the time of Sigonius and Annius Viterbiensis, it
+imposed on many learned men. The credit it obtained, introduced new
+disorders into the text of Catullus; and when the fraud was at length
+detected, the contriver of it only laughed at the temporary success of his
+imposture.
+
+Doering, in early life, had printed an edition of the principal poem of
+Catullus, the _Epithalamium of Peleus and Thetis_. Encouraged by the
+success of this publication, he subsequently prepared a complete edition
+of Catullus, which came forth at Leipsic in 1788.
+
+
+
+The _Epithalamium of Peleus and Thetis_, the chief production of Catullus,
+was translated into _Italian_ by Ludovico Dolce, and printed in 1538, at
+the end of a small volume of miscellaneous works dedicated to Titian. In
+the colophon it is said, “Il fine dell’ epitalamio tradotto per M. Lod.
+Dolce, in verso sciolto.” This Epithalamium was also translated in the
+eighteenth century, into _Ottava Rima_, by Parisotti, with a long preface,
+in which he maintains that the _ottava_, or _terza rima_, is better
+adapted for the translation of the Latin classics than _versi sciolti_.
+Ginguené, in the preface to his French translation of this Epithalamium,
+mentions three other Italian versions of the last century, those of
+Neruci, Torelli, and the Count d’Ayano, all of which, he says, possess
+considerable merit. He also informs us, that Antonio Conti had commenced a
+translation of this poem, which was found incomplete at his death; but it
+was accompanied by many valuable criticisms and annotations, which have
+been much employed in a Memoir inserted in the transactions of the French
+Academy, by M. D’Arnaud, whose plagiarisms from the Italian author have
+been pointed out at full length by M. Ginguené, in his preface. Conti
+completed a translation of the _Coma Berenices_ in _versi sciolti_,
+accompanied by an explanation of the subject, and learned notes, which was
+printed along with his works at Venice, in 1739. The _Coma Berenices_ was
+also translated in _terza rima_ by the Neapolitan Saverio Mattei, and by
+Pagnini in _versi sdruccioli_. At length, in 1803, M. Ugo Foscolo, now
+well known in this country as the author of the Letters of Jacopo Ortis,
+printed at Milan a translation of this elegy, in blank verse, under the
+title of _La Chioma di Berenice, poema di Callimaco, tradotto da Valerio
+Catullo, volgarizzato ed illustrato da Ugo Foscolo_. The version is
+preceded by four dissertations; the text is accompanied with notes, and
+followed by fourteen _considerazioni_, as they are called, in which the
+author severely censures and satirizes the pedantic commentators and
+philologers of his country. Mr Hobhouse, in his _Illustrations of Childe
+Harold_(626), says, that the whole lucubration, extending to nearly 300
+pages of large octavo, is a grave and continued irony on the verbal
+criticisms of commentators. “Some of the learned,” he continues, “fell
+into the snare, and Foscolo, who had issued only a few copies, now added a
+Farewell to his readers, in which he repays their praises, by exposing the
+mysteries and abuses of the philological art. Those whom he had deceived
+must have been not a little irritated to find that his frequent citations
+were invented for the occasion, and that his commentary had been purposely
+sprinkled with many of the grossest faults.”
+
+The whole works of Catullus were first translated into Italian by the
+Abbot Francis Maria Biacca of Parma, who concealed his real designation,
+according to the affected fashion of the times, under the appellation of
+Parmindo Ibichense, _Pastor Arcade_. The Abbot died in 1735, and his
+version was printed at Milan after his death, in 1740, in the twenty-first
+volume of the General Collection of Italian Translations from the Ancient
+Latin Poets. The most recent Italian version is that of Puccini, printed
+at Pisa in 1805. It is very deficient in point of spirit; and the last
+English translator of Catullus observes, “that it is chiefly remarkable
+for the squeamishness with which it omits all warmth in the love verses,
+while it unblushingly retains some of the most disgusting passages.”
+
+The _French_ have at all times dealt much in prose translations of the
+Classics. These did not suit very well for the epic poems, or even
+comedies or the Romans; and were totally abhorrent from the lyrical or
+epigrammatic productions of Catullus. A great deal of the beauty of every
+poem consists in the melody of its numbers. But there are certain species
+of poetry, of which the _chief_ merit lies in the sweetness and harmony of
+versification. A boldness of figures, too—a luxuriance of imagery—a
+frequent use of metaphors—a quickness of transition—a freedom of
+digression, which are allowable in every sort of poetry, are to many
+species of it essential. But these are quite unsuitable to the character
+of prose, and when seen in a prose translation, they appear preposterous
+and out of place, because they are never found in any original prose
+composition. Now, the beauties of Catullus are precisely of that nature,
+of which it is impossible to convey the smallest idea in a prose
+translation. Many of his poems are of a lyric description, in which a
+greater degree of irregularity of thought, and a more unrestrained
+exuberance of fancy, are permitted than in any other kind of composition.
+To attempt, therefore, a translation of a lyric poem into prose, is the
+most absurd of all undertakings; for those very characters of the
+original, which are essential to it, and which constitute its highest
+beauty, if transferred to a prose translation, become unpardonable
+blemishes. What could be more ridiculous than a French prose translation
+of the wild dithyrambics of Atis, or the fervent and almost phrenzied love
+verses to Lesbia? It is from poetry that the elegies of Catullus derive
+almost all their tenderness—his amorous verses all their delicacy,
+playfulness, or voluptuousness—and his epigrams all their sting.
+
+That indefatigable translator of the Latin poets, the Abbé Marolles, was
+the first person who _traduced_ Catullus in French. He was an author, of
+all others, the worst qualified to succeed in the task which he had
+undertaken, as his heavy and leaden pen was ill adapted to express the
+elegant light graces of his original. His prose translation was printed in
+1653. It was succeeded, in 1676, by one in verse, also by Marolles, but of
+which only thirty copies were thrown off and distributed among the
+translator’s friends. La Chapelle (not the author of the _Voyage_)
+translated most of the poems of Catullus, and inserted them in his
+_Histoire Galante_, entitled the _Amours de Catulle_, printed in 1680,
+which relates, in the style of an amatory prose romance, the adventures
+and intrigues of Catullus, his friends, and mistresses. The next
+translation, though not of the whole of his pieces, is by M. Pezay,
+printed 1771, who misses no opportunity of ridiculing Marolles and his
+work. It is in prose, as is also a more recent French translation by M.
+Noel, Paris, 1806. The first volume of Noel’s work contains the _Discours
+Preliminaire_ on the Life, Poetry, Editions, and Translations of Catullus;
+and the version itself, which is accompanied with the Latin text. The
+second volume comprises a very large body of notes, chiefly exhibiting the
+imitations of Catullus by French poets. Brunet mentions a translation
+still more recent, by M. Mollevaut, which is in verse, and proves that
+more justice may be done to Catullus in rhyme than prose.
+
+An _English_ translation of Catullus, usually ascribed to Dr Nott, was
+published anonymously in 1795, accompanied with some valuable annotations.
+He was the first to give, as he himself says, the whole of Catullus,
+without reserve, and in some way or other, to translate all his
+indecencies. This version adheres very closely to the original, and has
+the merit of being simple and literal, but it is meagre and inelegant: it
+is defective in ease and freedom, and but seldom presents us with any of
+those graces of poetry, and indeed almost unattainable felicities of
+diction, which characterize the original. While writing this, the poetical
+translation by Mr Lamb has come to my hands. It is also furnished with a
+long preface and notes, which appear to be tasteful and amusing. The chief
+objections to the translation are quite the reverse of those which have
+been stated to the version by which it was preceded—it seems defective in
+point of fidelity, and is too diffuse and redundant. No author suffers so
+much by being diluted as Catullus, and he can only be given with effect by
+a brevity as condensed and _piquant_ as his own. Indeed, the thoughts and
+language of Catullus throw more difficulties in the way of a translator,
+than those of almost any other classic author. His peculiarities of
+feeling—his idiomatic delicacies of style—that light ineffable grace—that
+elegant ease and spirit, with which he was more richly endued than almost
+any other poet, can hardly pass through the hands of a translator without
+being in some degree sullied or alloyed.
+
+
+
+
+                         LABERIUS—PUBLIUS SYRUS.
+
+
+The only fragment of any length or importance which we possess of
+Laberius, has been saved by Macrobius, in his _Saturnalia_. The fragments
+of Publius Syrus were chiefly preserved by Seneca and Au. Gellius, and the
+scattered maxims which they had recorded, were collected in various MSS.
+of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They were first printed
+together, under the superintendence of Erasmus, in 1502, as revised and
+corrected from a MS. in the University of Cambridge. Fabricius published
+some additional maxims, which had not previously been printed, in 1550.
+Stephens edited them at the end of his Fragments from the Greek and Latin
+Comic Poets, 1564; and Bentley published them along with Terence and the
+Fables of Phædrus, at Cambridge, in 1726. An improved edition, which had
+been prepared by Gruter, was printed under the superintendence of
+Havercamp, from a MS. after his death. The most complete edition, however,
+which has yet appeared, is that published by Orellius, at Leipsic, 1822.
+It contains 879 maxims, arranged in alphabetical order, from which, at
+least as the editor asserts, all those which are spurious have been
+rejected, and several that are genuine added. A Greek version of the
+maxims, by Jos. Scaliger, is given by him on the opposite side of the
+page, and he has appended a long commentary, in which he has quoted all
+the maxims of preceding or subsequent authors, who have expressed
+sentiments similar to those of Publius Syrus.
+
+The sentences were translated into _English_ from the edition of Erasmus,
+under the following title: “Proverbs or Adagies, with newe Additions,
+gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus, by Richard Taverner. Hereunto be
+also added, Mimi Publiani. Imprinted at Lo’don, in Fletstrete, at the
+signe of the Whyte Harte. _Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum._” On the
+back of the title is “the Prologe of the author, apologizing for his
+slender capacitie;” and concluding, “yet my harte is not to be blamed.” It
+contains sixty-four leaves, the last blank. On the last printed page are
+the “Faultes escaped in printynge,” which are seven in number. Beneath is
+the colophon, “Imprinted at London by Richarde Bankes, at the Whyte Harte,
+1539.” This book was frequently reprinted. James Elphinston, long known to
+the public by his unsuccessful attempt to introduce a new and uniform mode
+of spelling into the English language, translated, in 1794, “The
+Sentencious Poets—Publius dhe Syrrian—Laberius dhe Roman Knight, &c.
+arrainged and translated into correspondent Inglish Mezzure(627).”
+
+
+
+
+                               CATO—VARRO.
+
+
+It appears from Aulus Gellius, that, even in his time, the works of Cato
+had begun to be corrupted by the ignorance of transcribers. As mentioned
+in the text, his book on Agriculture, the only one of his numerous
+writings which survives, has come down to us in a very imperfect and
+mutilated state. A MS. of Cato, but very faulty and incomplete, was in
+possession of Niccolo Niccoli; and a letter from him is extant, requesting
+one of his correspondents, called Michelotius, to borrow for him a very
+ancient copy from the Bishop Aretino, in order that his own might be
+rendered more perfect(628). Most of the editions we now have, follow a MS.
+which is said to have been discovered at Paris by the architect Fra
+Giocondo of Verona, and was brought by him to Italy. Varro’s treatise on
+Agriculture was first discovered by Candidi, as he himself announces in a
+letter to Niccolo Niccoli(629).
+
+The agricultural works of Cato and Varro have generally been printed
+together, and also along with those of Columella and Palladius, under the
+title of _Rei Rusticæ Scriptores_. There is no ancient MS. known, in which
+all the _Rei Rusticæ Scriptores_ are collected together. They were first
+combined in the _Editio Princeps_, edited by Georgius Merula, and printed
+at Venice, in 1470. The next edition, superintended by Bruschius, and
+printed in 1482, has almost entirely disappeared. In many passages, its
+readings were different from those of all other editions, as appears from
+the annotations communicated from Rome, by Pontedera to Gesner, while he
+was preparing his celebrated edition(630). Philippus Beroaldus corrected a
+good many faults and errors which had crept into the _Editio Princeps_.
+His emendations were made use of in the edition of Bologna, 1494, by
+Benedict Hector. Gesner has assiduously collated that edition with the
+_Editio princeps_, and he informs us, that it contained many important
+corrections. Though differing in some respects, he considers all the
+editions previous to that of Aldus, as belonging to the same class or
+family. The Aldine edition, printed 1514, was superintended by Fra
+Giocondo of Verona, who, having procured at Paris some MSS. not previously
+consulted, introduced from them many new readings, and filled up several
+chasms in the text, particularly the fifty-seventh chapter(631). This
+edition, however, is not highly esteemed; “Sequitur,” says Fabricius,
+“novi nec optimi generis editio Aldina:” And Schneider, the most recent
+editor of the _Rei Rusticæ Scriptores_, affirms that Giocondo corrupted
+and perverted almost every passage which he changed. Nicholas Angelius
+took charge of the edition published by the Giunta at Florence, in 1515.
+His new readings are ingenious; but many of them are quite unauthorized
+and conjectural. The Aldine continued to form the basis of all subsequent
+editions, till the time of Petrus Victorius, who was so great a restorer
+and amender of the _Rei Rusticæ Scriptores_, that he is called their
+_Æsculapius_ by Gesner, and _Sospitator_ by Fabricius. Victorius had got
+access to a set of MSS. which Politian had collated with the _Editio
+Princeps_. The most ancient and important of these MSS., containing Cato,
+and almost the whole of Varro, was found by Victorius in the library of St
+Mark; another in French characters was in the Medicean library; and a
+third had belonged to Franciscus Barbarus, and was transcribed by him from
+an excellent exemplar at Padua(632). But though Victorius had the
+advantage of consulting these MSS., it does not appear that he possessed
+the collation by the able hand of Politian; because that was inserted, not
+in the MSS., but in his own printed copy of the _Editio Princeps_; and
+Gesner shows at great length that Petrus Victorius had never consulted any
+copy whatever of the _Editio Princeps_(633). Victorius first employed his
+learning and critical talents on Varro. Some time afterwards, Giovanni
+della Casa being sent by the Pope on some public affairs to Florence,
+where Victorius at that time resided, brought him a message from the
+Cardinal Marcellus Cervinus, requesting that he should exert on Cato some
+part of that diligence which he had formerly employed on Varro. Victorius
+soon completed the task assigned him. He also resumed Varro, and
+attentively revised his former labours on that author(634). At last he
+determined to collate whatever MSS. of the Rustic writers he could
+procure. Those above-mentioned, as having been inspected by Politian, were
+the great sources whence he derived new and various readings.
+
+It is not known that Victorius printed any edition containing the text of
+the _Rei Rusticæ Scriptores_ in Italy. His letter to Cervinus speaks as if
+he was just about to edit them; but whether he did so is uncertain.
+“Quartam classem,” says Harles, “constituit Victorius, sospitator horum
+scriptorum: qui quidem num primum in Italiâ recensitos dederit eos cum
+Gesnero et Ernesti ignoro(635).” As far as now appears, his corrections
+and emendations were first printed in the edition of Leyden, 1541, where
+the authors it contains, are said in the title to be _Restituti per Petrum
+Victorium, ad veterum exemplarium fidem, suæ integritati_. His
+castigations were printed in the year following, but without the text of
+the authors, at Florence. The Leyden edition was reprinted at Paris, in
+1543, by Robert Stephens, and was followed by the edition of Hier.
+Commellinus, 1595.
+
+At length Gesner undertook a complete edition of the _Rei Rusticæ
+Scriptores_, under circumstances of which he has given us some account in
+his preface. The eminent bookseller, Fritschius, had formed a plan of
+printing these authors; and to aid in this object, he had employed
+Schoettgenius, a young, but even then a distinguished scholar. A digest of
+the best commentators, and a collection of various readings, were
+accordingly prepared by him. The undertaking, however, was then deferred,
+in expectation of the arrival of MSS. from Italy; and Schoettgenius was
+meanwhile called to a distance to some other employment, leaving the
+fruits of his labour in the hands of Fritschius. In 1726, that bookseller
+came to Gesner, and informed him, that Politian’s collations, written on
+his copy of the _Editio Princeps_, had at length reached him, as also some
+valuable observations on the rustic writers, communicated from Italy by
+Pontedera and Facciolati. Fritschius requested that Gesner should now
+arrange the whole materials which had been compiled. Selections from the
+commentaries, and the various readings previous to the time of Victorius,
+were prepared to his hand; but he commenced an assiduous study of every
+thing that was valuable in more recent editions. At length his ponderous
+edition came out with a preface, giving a full detail of the labours of
+others and his own, and with the prefaces to the most celebrated preceding
+editions. Some of the notes had been previously printed, as those of
+Meursius, Scaliger, and Fulvius Ursinus—others, as those of Schoettgenius,
+Pontedera, and Gesner himself, had never yet seen the light. Though Gesner
+never names Pontedera without duly styling him Clarissimus Pontedera, that
+scholar was by no means pleased with the result of Gesner’s edition, and
+attacked it with much asperity, in his great work, _Antiquitatum
+Rusticarum_. Gesner’s first edition was printed at Leipsic, 1735. Ernesti
+took charge of the publication of the second edition; and, in addition to
+the dissertation of Ausonius Popma, _De Instrumento Fundi_, which formed
+an appendix to the first, he has inserted Segner’s description and
+explanation of the aviary of Varro.
+
+The most recent edition of the _Scriptores Rei Rusticæ_, is that of
+Schneider, who conceives that he has perfected the edition of Gesner, by
+having collated the ancient edition of Bruschius, and the first Aldine
+edition, neither of which had been consulted by his predecessor.
+
+Besides forming parts of every collection of the _Rei Rusticæ Scriptores_,
+the agricultural treatises of Cato and Varro have been repeatedly printed
+by themselves, and apart from those of Columella and Palladius. Ausonius
+Popma, in his separate edition of Cato, 1590, has chiefly, and without
+much acknowledgment, employed some valuable annotations and remarks
+contained in the _Adversaria_ of Turnebus. This edition was accompanied by
+some other fragments of Cato. These, however, were of small importance;
+and the principal part of the publication being the work on Agriculture,
+its sale was much impeded by Commellinus’ full edition of the agricultural
+writers, published five years afterwards. Raphellengius, however,
+reprinted it in 1598, with a new title; and with the addition of the notes
+of Meursius. Popma again revised his labours, and published an improved
+edition in 1620. Varro’s treatise, _De Re Rusticâ_, was published alone in
+1545, and with his other writings, by Stephens, in 1569. Ausonius Popma
+also edited it in 1601, appropriating, according to his custom, the notes
+and observations of others.
+
+
+
+Cato’s work _De Re Rusticâ_, has been translated into _Italian_ by Pagani,
+whose version was printed at Venice, 1792; and into _French_ by Saboureux,
+Paris, 1775. I am not aware of any full _English_ translation of Cato, but
+numerous extracts are made from it in Dickson’s _Husbandry of the
+Ancients_.
+
+Italy has produced more translations of the Latin writers than any other
+country; and one would naturally suppose, that the agricultural writings
+of those who had cultivated the same soil as themselves, would be
+peculiarly interesting to the Italians. I do not know, however, of any
+version of Varro in their language. There is an _English_ translation, by
+the Rev. Mr Owen, printed at Oxford in 1800. In his preface, the author
+says,—“Having collated many copies of this work of the Roman writer in my
+possession, and the variations being very numerous, I found it no easy
+task to make a translation of his treatise on agriculture. To render any
+common Arabic author into English, would have been a labour less difficult
+to me some years ago, than it has been to translate this part of the works
+of this celebrated writer.”
+
+
+
+
+                                 SALLUST.
+
+
+This historian was criticized in a work of Asinius Pollio, particularly on
+account of his affected use of obsolete words and expressions. Sulpicius
+Apollinaris, the grammarian, who lived in the reigns of the Antonines,
+boasted that he was the only person of his time who could understand
+Sallust. His writings were illustrated by many of the ancient grammarians,
+as Asper and Statilius Maximus. In the course of the ninth century, we
+find Lupus, Abbot of Ferriers, in one of his letters, praying his friend
+Regimbertus to procure for him a copy of Sallust(636); and there was a
+copy of his works in the Library of Glastonbury Abbey, in the year
+1240(637). The style of Sallust is very peculiar: He often omits words
+which other writers would insert, and inserts those which they would omit.
+Hence his text became early, and very generally, corrupted, from
+transcribers and copyists leaving out what they naturally enough supposed
+to be redundancies, and supplying what they considered as deficiencies.
+
+There appeared not less than three editions of Sallust in the course of
+the year 1470. It has been much disputed, and does not seem to be yet
+ascertained, which of them is the _Editio Princeps_. One was printed under
+the care of Merula, by Spira, at Venice; but the other two are without
+name of place or printer: It has been conjectured, that of these two, the
+one which is in folio was printed at Rome(638); and the other, in quarto,
+at Paris, by Gering, Crantz, and Friburg(639). The Venice Edition is
+usually accounted the _Editio Princeps_(640), but Fuhrmann considers both
+the Paris and Roman editions as prior to it. The Roman, he thinks, in
+concurrence with the opinion of Harles, is the earliest of all. The
+Bipontine editors style the Parisian impression the _Primaria Princeps_.
+Besides these three, upwards of thirty other editions were published in
+the course of the fifteenth century. One of them was printed at Venice,
+1493, from the _Recension_ of Pomponius Lætus, who has been accused by
+subsequent editors of introducing many of the corruptions which have crept
+into the text of Sallust(641). There were also a number of commentaries in
+this century, by scholars, who did not themselves publish editions of the
+historian, but greatly contributed to the assistance of those who prepared
+them in the next. The commentary of Laurentius Valla, in particular, which
+was first printed at Rome in 1490, and in which scarcely a single word is
+passed over without remark or explanation, enriched most of the editions
+which appeared in the end of the fifteenth, and the beginning of the
+subsequent century(642). The first of any note in the sixteenth century,
+were those of Aldus, Venice, 1509, and 1521. Carrio, who published an
+edition at Antwerp in 1579, collected many of the fragments of Sallust’s
+great History of Rome; and he amended the text of the Catilinarian and
+Jugurthine Wars, as he himself boasts, in several thousand places. The
+edition of Gruter, in 1607, in which the text received considerable
+alterations, on the authority of the Palatine MS., obtained in its time
+considerable reputation. The earliest _Variorum_ edition is in 1649; but
+the best is that printed at Leyden, with the notes of Gronovius, in 1690.
+An immense number of MSS., and copies of the most ancient editions, were
+collated by Wasse for the Cambridge edition, 1710. He chiefly followed the
+text of Gruter, but he has added the notes of various commentators, and
+also some original observations of his own, particularly comparisons,
+which he has instituted between his author and the ancient Greek writers.
+The editions of Cortius (Leipsic, 1724), and of Havercamp (Amsterdam,
+1742), are both excellent. The former, in preparing his work, consulted
+not less than thirty MSS., fifteen of which were preserved in the
+Wolfenbuttel library. He also assiduously collated most of the old
+editions, and found some good readings in those of Venice, 1470–1493, and
+that of Leipsic, 1508. Most of the editions, however, of the fifteenth
+century, he affirms, are very bad; and, according to him, a greater number
+of the errors, which had crept into the text of Sallust, are to be
+attributed to them, than to the corruptions of Pomponius Lætus. Cortius
+chiefly erred in conceiving that Sallust’s conciseness consisted solely in
+paucity of words, so that he always preferred the readings where the
+greatest number of them were thrown out, though the meaning was thereby
+obscured, and sometimes altogether lost. The readings in Havercamp’s
+edition are all founded on those of Wasse and Gruter. The text is
+overloaded with notes: “Textus,” says Ernesti, “velut cymba in oceano, ita
+in notis natat.” The various readings are separated from the notes, being
+inserted between the text and the commentary. In the first volume, we have
+the text of Sallust, and the annotations—in the second, the prefaces of
+different editors of Sallust—his life—the fragments of his works—and the
+judgments pronounced by ancient authors on his writings. The text of
+Teller’s edition, Berlin, 1790, is formed on that of Cortius, but departs
+from it, where the editor conceived himself justified by the various
+readings of a rare and ancient edition, published at Brescia, 1495, which
+he had consulted. It is totally unprovided with _prolegomena_, or notices,
+with regard to the life and writings of the author, or his works; but
+there is appended to it a recension of the celebrated Spanish Translation,
+executed under the auspices of the Infant Don Gabriel, and a very full
+_Index Latinitatis_. The best of the recent German editions, is that of
+Lange, Halle, 1815. In this work, the editor chiefly follows Havercampus.
+His great object was to restore the purity of the text, which he believed
+to have been greatly corrupted by the rash and unauthorized alterations of
+preceding editors, more particularly of Cortius. Notes are subjoined,
+partly illustrative of Sallust’s genius and talents, and partly of that
+portion of Roman history, of which he treated.
+
+
+
+Sallust has been translated into _Italian_, by a Genoese of the name of
+Agost. Ortica, (Venice, 1518). The work of Ortica also comprehends a
+version of Cicero’s fourth Catilinarian orations, and the supposed reply
+of Catiline. The style is barbarous, involved, and obscure, and in some
+passages nearly unintelligible. In point of style, the translation of
+Lelio Carani (Florence, 1530) is purer, but it is too paraphrastic, and
+has not always accurately expressed the meaning of the original. The
+version of Paulo Spinola (1564) was scarcely more happy. These three
+translations having become scarce by the middle of last century, and being
+defective in many of the most essential qualities of a translation, the
+Doctor Battista Bianchi, Professor of Latin at Sienna, undertook an
+improved translation, in which he attempted to imitate the brevity of
+Sallust, though he did not, like some of his predecessors, insert obsolete
+Italian words, corresponding to the antique Latin expressions adopted by
+his original. To this translation, first printed at Venice, 1761, there is
+prefixed a long and elaborate preface, in which the author discusses the
+historical and literary merits of Sallust, and enumerates the translations
+of his works which had at that time appeared in the different languages of
+Europe. After this follows the life of the Latin author. There are
+likewise annotations at the foot of the page, and an index at the end of
+the whole. The next Italian translation of any note which appeared, was
+that by Alfieri, which is considered in Italy as a masterpiece: His prose
+style, which was founded on that of the classic writers, qualified him
+admirably for the task.
+
+There have been more translations of Sallust in _French_, than in any
+other language. It was translated, it is said, as far back as the reign of
+King John of France, who died in 1364. “Le Roi Jean,” says Villaret,
+“ainsi qu’on l’a rapporté, avoit fait entreprendre des versions de
+quelques auteurs Latins, tels que Salluste et Tite-Live(643).” I do not
+suppose, however, that this translation was given to the press on the
+invention of printing. The first version printed was that of Baudoin, in
+1617; which was succeeded, in the course of the same century, by the
+futile attempts of Cassagne and Du Teil. The version of the Abbé Le
+Masson, which appeared in the commencement of the ensuing century, was
+accompanied with a defence of the moral character of the historian. It was
+followed, in a few years afterwards, by that of the Abbé Thyvon, which,
+though it does not convey an adequate idea of the strength and sententious
+brevity of the original, is for the most part extremely faithful to the
+meaning of the author. Its deficiency in the former qualities, seems to
+have induced M Dotteville to attempt a new translation, as he appears to
+be always striving at terseness and conciseness of style. “His Sallust,”
+says the most recent English translator, “like his Tacitus, is harsh and
+dry; and his fruitless endeavours to vie in brevity with either historian,
+are sufficient to prove, if such proof were needful, how absurd an attempt
+it is in any translator, for the sake of seizing some peculiar feature of
+resemblance, or some fancied grace of diction, to violate the genius of
+his native language.” A similar criticism is extended, in the following
+paragraph, to the version of M. Beauzie, though it is admitted to be the
+most faithful and accurate that ever appeared in the French language. The
+translation of Dotteville was first printed in 1760, and that of Beauzie
+fifteen years afterwards. About the same time M. de Brosses, President of
+the Parliament of Dijon, published a History of Rome during the Seventh
+Century, which professes to be chiefly made up from the fragments of
+Sallust. The War of Jugurtha comes first in the historical
+arrangement—then follow the events which intervened between that contest
+and the Conspiracy of Catiline, taken from the fragments of Sallust, which
+are interwoven with the body of the narrative—and, lastly, the Conspiracy.
+The work, which extends to three volumes 4to, comprehends very full notes,
+and includes a life of Sallust, which, though written in an indifferent
+style, displays considerable learning and research. Although the version
+of De Brosses was generally accounted one of the best translations of the
+Classics, which had appeared in the French, or any other language, it does
+not seem to have been considered as precluding subsequent attempts. A
+translation by Dureau Delamalle appeared in 1808, and one by Mollevaut,
+yet more recent, which has gone through at least three editions. Still,
+however, many persons in France prefer the version of Dotteville to the
+more modern translations.
+
+It would appear, that the writings of Sallust became known and popular in
+_England_ soon after the revival of literature. A translation of the
+Jugurthine War, executed by “Sir Alexander Barclay, Priest, at the command
+of the Duke of Norfolke, and printed by Richard Pynson,” in folio, was
+published as early as the reign of Henry VIII. It bears on the
+title-page—“Here begynneth the famous Cronycle of the Warre which the
+Romaynes had against Jugurth, usurper of the Kyngdome of Numidy: Which
+Cronycle was compyled in Latin by the renowned Sallust. And translated
+into English by Sir Alexander Barclay, Preest, at commandment of the right
+hye and mighty Prince, Thomas Duke of Northfolke.” The volume is without
+date, but is supposed to have been printed about 1540. It was twice
+reprinted in 1557, and in one of these editions was accompanied with
+Catiline’s Conspiracy, translated by Thomas Paynel. The version of
+Barclay, though a good one for the time, having become obsolete, not less
+than three translations appeared in the middle and end of the seventeenth
+century—one by William Crosse, and the other two by anonymous authors.
+These early translations are all “Faithfully done in Englysh,” according
+to the taste of the time, which, if the sense were tolerably rendered, was
+little solicitous for accuracy, and still less for elegance of
+diction(644). In Rowe’s translation, 1709, the sense of the author is
+given with correctness, but the style is feeble and colloquial. Gordon,
+better known as the translator of Tacitus, also translated Sallust in
+1744. His version is accompanied with a series of discourses on topics
+connected with Roman history, as on faction and parties, public
+corruption, and civil wars. The Epistles of Sallust to Cæsar on
+Government, are also translated by him, and their authenticity vindicated.
+In 1751, Dr Rose published a new translation of the Catilinarian and
+Jugurthine Wars. “This translation,” says Steuart, “is justly entitled to
+the esteem in which it has been held, and the author himself to
+considerable praise, for his endeavours to combine the advantages of a
+free and literal version. His chief defect proceeds from what constitutes
+the great difficulty in all classical translation—the uniting a clear
+transfusion of the sense with the ease and freedom of original
+composition. To the critical reader, this will be abundantly obvious, if
+he compare the version of Sallust with the original pieces of Dr Rose
+himself. In the speeches, too, where the ancient writers laid out all
+their energy, and in which they should be followed by a like effort of the
+translator, the author is cold and languid, and he rises on no occasion
+above the level of ordinary narrative.” The most recent English
+translation is that by the author above quoted—1806, two volumes quarto.
+Two long Essays, with notes, are prefixed to it—the one on the Life, and
+the other on the Literary Character and Writings of Sallust. The Spanish
+translation of Sallust, executed under the auspices of the Infant Don
+Gabriel, has been much celebrated on account of its plates and
+incomparable typography. It was printed in 1772.
+
+
+
+
+                                  CÆSAR.
+
+
+Lupus, Abbot of Ferriers, says, in one of his letters, that no historic
+work of Cæsar was extant, except his Commentaries on the Gallic War, of
+which he promises to send his correspondent, the Bishop Heribold, a copy,
+as soon as he can procure one(645). The other Commentaries, _De Bello
+Civili_, and _De Bello Alexandrino_, of which he speaks as being also
+extant, were written, he affirms, by Hirtius. It thus appears, that though
+Lupus was mistaken as to the author of the work _De Bello Civili_, the
+whole series of memoirs now known by the name of Cæsar’s Commentaries, was
+extant in the ninth century. About a century afterwards, Pope Gerbert, or
+Sylvester II., writes to the Archbishop of Rheims to procure the loan of a
+copy of Cæsar from the Abbot of Terdon, who was possessed of one, and to
+have it transcribed for him(646). Cæsar’s Commentaries are repeatedly
+quoted in the _Speculum Historiale_ of Vincent de Beauvais, a work of the
+thirteenth century, and in various other productions of the same period.
+It is probable, therefore, that copies of them were not very scarce in
+that age; but they had become so rare by the middle of the fifteenth
+century, that Candidi, in a letter to Niccolo Niccoli, announces the
+discovery of a MS. of Cæsar as a great event.
+
+Andrea, Bishop of Aleria, took charge of the first edition of Cæsar, and
+an erudite epistle by him is prefixed to it. It came forth at Rome, from
+the printing-press of Sweynheim and Pannartz, as early as the year 1469.
+Of this _Editio Princeps_ of Cæsar, only 275 copies were thrown off; but
+it was reprinted at the same place in 1472. There were a good many
+editions published towards the end of the fifteenth century, most of which
+have now become rare. The first of the ensuing century was that of
+Philippus Beroaldus, (Bologna 1504). It was followed by the Aldine
+editions, (Venice 1513–19,) which are not so remarkable either for
+accuracy or beauty as the other early editions of the Classics which
+issued from the celebrated press of the Manutii. The first had seven pages
+of errata—“Mendis scatet,” say the Bipontine editors. In the edition,
+1566, there were inserted plates of warlike instruments, encampments, and
+the most celebrated places mentioned in Cæsar’s campaigns, which became a
+common ornament and appendage in subsequent impressions.
+
+Fulvius Ursinus published an edition of considerable note in 1570. Ursinus
+had discovered a MS. written in the middle of the tenth century, which he
+chiefly employed in the correction of the text. He is accused of having
+committed a literary theft in the publication of this work, it being
+alleged that he had received many annotations from Petrus Ciacconius,
+which he mixed up with his own, and inserted as such, suppressing
+altogether the name of the real author.
+
+The next edition of any eminence, was that of Strada (Frankfort, 1574).
+This impression is remarkable for containing forty plates of battles, and
+other things relating to the campaigns of Cæsar; as also inscriptions,
+found in various cities of Spain. It is also distinguished as having been
+the prototype of Clarke’s splendid edition of Cæsar, which Mr Dibdin
+pronounces to be “the most sumptuous classical volume which this country
+ever produced. It contains,” says he, “eighty-seven copperplates, which
+were engraved at the expense of the different noblemen to whom they are
+dedicated. Of these plates, I am not disposed to think so highly as some
+fond admirers: The head of Marlborough, to whom this courtly work is
+dedicated, by Kneller and Vertue, does not convey any exalted idea of that
+renowned hero; and the bust of Julius Cæsar, which follows it, will appear
+meagre and inelegant to those who have contemplated a similar print in the
+quarto publication of Lavater’s Physiognomy. The plates are in general
+rather curious than ably executed; and compared with what Flaxman has done
+for Homer and Æschylus, are tasteless and unspirited. The type of this
+magnificent volume is truly beautiful and splendid, and for its fine
+lustre and perfect execution, reflects immortality on the publisher. The
+text is accompanied with various readings in the margin; and at the end of
+the volume, after the fragments of Cæsar, are the critical notes of the
+editor, compiled with great labour from the collation of ancient MSS. and
+former editions. A MS. in the Queen’s library, and one belonging to the
+Bishop of Ely, were particularly consulted by Dr Clarke. The work closes
+with a large and correct index of names and places. It is upon the whole a
+most splendid edition, and will be a lasting monument of the taste, as
+well as erudition of the editor.”
+
+The best edition since the time of Dr Clarke’s, is that by Oudendorp,
+printed at Leyden in 1737. This editor had the use of many ancient MSS.,
+particularly two of the beginning of the ninth century, one of which had
+belonged to Julius Bongarsius, and the other to Petrus Bellovacensis. “The
+preceding commentators on Cæsar,” says Harles, “have all been eclipsed by
+the skill and researches of Oudendorp, who, by a careful examination of
+numerous MSS. and editions, has often successfully restored the true
+ancient reading of his author.” He has inserted in his publication
+Dodwell’s disquisition concerning the author of the books _De Bello
+Alexandrino_, and Scaliger’s _Topographical Description of Gaul_. Morus
+reprinted this edition, but with many critical improvements, at Leipsic,
+1780. He has illustrated the military tactics of Cæsar, from Ritter’s
+History of the Gauls, and from the books of Guischardus, _De Re Militari
+Veterum_. The best modern German edition is that of Oberlin, (Leipsic,
+1805). It is founded on the basis of those of Oudendorp and Morus, with
+additional observations, and a careful revision of the text. In the
+preface, those writings in which the faith due to Cæsar’s Commentaries is
+attempted to be shaken, are reviewed and refuted; and there are added
+several fragments of Cæsar, as also those notices of ancient authors
+concerning him, which had been neglected or omitted by Morus.
+
+
+
+Cæsar was first rendered into _Italian_ by Agost. Ortica, the translator
+of Sallust. He says, in the preface, that his version was executed in a
+very hurried manner, as it was transcribed and printed all in the course
+of six months. Argelati could not ascertain the date of the most ancient
+edition, which was printed at Milan, but he thinks that it was as old as
+the fifteenth century(647). This impression was followed by not fewer than
+twelve others, before the middle of the sixteenth century. A subsequent
+translation, by F. Baldelli, appeared at Venice, 1554. This edition was,
+succeeded by many others, particularly one at Venice in 1595, quarto, of
+which Palladio, the great architect, took charge. He inserted in it
+various engravings of battles, encampments, sieges, and other military
+operations, from plates which had been executed by his two sons, Leonida
+and Orazio, and had come into his hands soon after their premature
+decease. He prepared the edition chiefly for the sake of introducing these
+designs, and thereby honouring the memory of his children. To this edition
+there is a preface by Palladio on the military affairs of the Romans,
+their legions, arms, and encampments. A splendid impression of Baldelli’s
+version, accompanied with Palladio’s designs, was thrown off at Venice in
+1619. In 1737, a translation appeared at Venice, bearing to be printed
+from an ancient MS. of Cæsar, in Italian, which the editor says he had
+discovered, (_where_ he does not specify,) and had in some few places
+corrected and modernized. Paitoni has exposed this literary fraud, and has
+shown, that it is just the translation of Baldelli, with a few words
+altered at the beginning of paragraphs. In some respects, however, it is a
+good edition, containing various tables and notices conducive to the
+proper understanding of the author.
+
+
+
+We have seen that several translations of the Latin classics were executed
+by order of the French king, John. Charles V., who succeeded him in 1364,
+was a still warmer patron of learning, and was himself tolerably versed in
+Latin literature. “Tant que compettement,” says Christine de Pise, in her
+Memoirs of him, “entendoit son Latin.” By his order and directions the
+first _French_ translation of Cæsar was undertaken(648). But the earliest
+French translation of Cæsar’s Commentaries which was printed, was that of
+Robert Gaguin, dedicated to Charles VIII. and published in 1488. Of the
+recent French versions the most esteemed is that by Turpin de Crissi,
+accompanied by historical and critical notes, and printed at Montargis,
+1785.
+
+The part of Cæsar’s Commentaries which relates to the Gallic wars was
+translated into _English_ as early as 1565, by Arthur Golding, who
+dedicated his work to Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh. In
+1695, a translation of the whole Commentaries was printed with the
+following title: “The Commentaries of Cæsar, of his Wars in Gallia, and of
+the Civil Wars betwixt him and Pompey, _with many excellent and judicious
+Observations_ thereupon; as also, the Art of our Modern Training; by
+Clement Edmonds, Esq.” The best translation is that by “William Duncan,
+Professor of Philosophy in the University of Aberdeen, printed at London,
+1755,” with a long preliminary Discourse concerning the Roman Art of War.
+
+
+
+
+                                 CICERO.
+
+
+Some of Cicero’s orations were studied harangues, which he had prepared
+and written over previous to their delivery. This, however, was not the
+case with the greater proportion of his speeches, most of which were
+pronounced without much premeditation, but were afterwards copied out,
+with such corrections and embellishments as bestowed on them a greater
+polish and lustre than when they had originally fallen from his lips.
+Before the invention of printing had increased the means of satisfying
+public curiosity, as no oration was given to the world but by the author
+himself, he had always the power of altering and improving by his
+experience of the effect it produced at delivery. Pliny informs us, that
+many things on which Cicero had enlarged at the time when he actually
+spoke in the Senate and the Forum, were retrenched when he ultimately gave
+his orations to the public in writing(649). Cicero himself had somewhere
+declared, that the defence of Cornelius had occupied four days, whence
+Pliny concludes, that those orations which, when delivered at full length,
+took up so much time at the bar, were greatly altered and abridged, when
+he afterwards comprised them in a single volume. The orations, in
+particular, for Muræna and Varenus, he says, seem now to contain merely
+the general heads of a discourse. Sometimes, however, they were extended
+and not curtailed, by the orator in the closet, as was confessedly the
+case in the defence of Milo. A few of the orations which Cicero had
+delivered, he did not consider as at all worthy of preservation. Thus, of
+the oration for Dejotarus, he says, in one of his letters to Dolabella, “I
+did not imagine that I had preserved among my papers the trifling speech
+which I made in behalf of Dejotarus; however, I have found it, and sent it
+to you, agreeably to your request(650).” This accounts for many speeches
+of Cicero, the delivery of which is recorded in history, being now lost.
+It appears, however, that those which he considered deserving of his care,
+though they may be widely different from the state in which they were
+originally pronounced, came pure from the hand of the author, either in
+the shape in which he would have wished to have delivered them, or in that
+which he considered best adapted for publication and perusal. They were
+probably transcribed by himself, and copies of them multiplied by his
+freedmen, such as Tyro and Tyrannio, whom he had accustomed to accurate
+transcription. His orations had also the good fortune to meet, at a very
+early period, with a judicious and learned commentator in the person of
+Asconius Pedianus, a grammarian in the reign of Nero, part of whose
+Commentary was discovered by Poggio, along with other classical works, in
+the monastery of St Gall, near Constance.
+
+All the orations of Cicero were not lost during the middle ages. Pope
+Gerbert, in one of his letters, asks from the Abbot Gesilbert a copy of
+the concluding part of the speech for Dejotarus; and he writes to another
+of his correspondents, to bring him Cicero’s treatise _De Republicâ_, and
+the Orations against Verres, “Comitentur iter tuum Tulliana opuscula, et
+de Republicâ et in Verrem(651):” Brunetto Latini, who died in 1294,
+translated into Italian the orations for Dejotarus, Marcellus, and
+Ligarius, which were afterwards printed at Lyons in 1568(652). These three
+harangues being in a great measure complimentary addresses to Cæsar, and
+containing no sentiment but what might be safely expressed in presence of
+an unlimited sovereign, more transcripts had been made of them in Rome’s
+tyrannical ages, than of those orations which breathed forth the expiring
+spirit of liberty.
+
+Cicero was the idol of Petrarch, the great restorer of classical
+literature. He never could speak of him but in terms of deep and
+enthusiastic admiration. The sweetness and sonorousness of Tully’s periods
+charmed his ear; and though unable to penetrate the depths of his
+philosophy, yet his vigorous fancy often soared with the Roman orator into
+the highest regions of imagination. Hence, while eager for the discovery
+of all the classics, his chief diligence was exercised in endeavouring to
+preserve such works of Cicero as were then known, and to recover such as
+were lost(653). Petrarch received in loan from Lapo of Castiglionchio a
+copy of several of Cicero’s orations, among which were the Philippics, and
+the oration for Milo. These he kept by him for four years, that he might
+transcribe them with his own hand, on account of the blunders of the
+copyists in that age. This we learn from the letters of Lapo, published by
+the Abbé Mehus. Coming to Liege when about twenty-five years of age, that
+is, in 1329, Petrarch remained there till two orations of Cicero, which he
+had discovered in that city, were transcribed, one by his own hand, and
+another by a friend, both of which were immediately transmitted by him to
+Italy. He was detained at Liege for some time by the difficulty of
+procuring even the worst sort of ink. Several other orations of Cicero
+were discovered by Petrarch in different parts of Italy.
+
+Dominico Arretino, who was nearly contemporary with Petrarch, declares, in
+one of his works, entitled _Fons_, that he had seen eleven of Cicero’s
+orations, and that a person had told him that he actually possessed and
+had read twenty of them(654). It appears, however, that in the time of
+Cosmo de Medici those works of Cicero which were extant were very much
+corrupted. “Illorum librorum,” says Niccolo Niccoli, speaking of some of
+the works of Cicero, “magna pars interierit, hi vero qui supersunt adeo
+mendosi sunt, ut paulo ab interitu distent;” hence, in the middle of the
+fifteenth century, the discovery of a new MS. of Cicero was hailed as a
+new acquisition. At Langres, in a library of the monks of Clugni, in
+Burgundy, Poggio found the oration for Cæcina, which he immediately
+transcribed, and sent various copies of it to his friends in Italy. In the
+monasteries around Constance he discovered the two orations against
+Rullus, _De Lege Agrariâ_, and that to the people on the same subject;
+also the orations _Pro Rabirio_, and _Pro Roscio_. A note on the MS. copy
+of the oration _in Pisonem_, preserved in the abbey of Santa Maria, in
+Florence, records the fact of this harangue having been likewise
+discovered by Poggio(655).
+
+A compendium of Cicero’s treatise _De Inventione_ was well known in the
+dark ages, having been translated into Italian, in an abridged form, in
+the thirteenth century, by a professor of Bologna. This was almost the
+first prose work which had appeared in the language, and was printed at
+Lyons with the _Ethica d’Aristotile_, by Brunetto Latini, who also
+translated the first book _De Inventione_(656). Lupus of Ferrieres
+possessed a copy of Cicero’s _Rhetorica_, as he himself informs us(657),
+but it was incomplete; and he accordingly asks Einhart, who had been his
+preceptor, for the loan of his MS. of this work, in order that his own
+might be perfected. Ingulphus, who flourished in England towards the close
+of the eleventh century, declares, that he was sent from Westminster to
+the school at Oxford, where he learned Aristotle, and the first two books
+of Tully’s _Rhetorica_(658). Now, if the first two books of the
+_Rhetorica_, which are all that have hitherto been discovered, were used
+as an elementary work in the public school at Oxford, they can hardly be
+supposed to have been very scarce in Italy. From the jurisconsult, Raymond
+Superantius, or Sorranza, to whom he had been indebted for the books _De
+Gloriâ_, Petrarch received an imperfect copy of the tract _De Oratore_, of
+which the MSS., though generally incomplete, were by no means uncommon at
+that period. “Ab hoc habui,” says he, “et Varronis et Ciceronis aliqua:
+Cujus unum volumen de communibus fuit; sed inter ipsa communia libri de
+Oratore ac de Legibus imperfecti, ut fere semper inveniuntur.” Nearly half
+a century from the death of Petrarch had elapsed, before the discovery of
+a complete copy of Cicero’s rhetorical works. It was about the year 1418,
+during the Popedom of Martin V., and while Poggio was in England, that
+Gerard Landriani, Bishop of Lodi, found in that city, among the ruins of
+an ancient monastery, a MS., containing Cicero’s treatise _De Oratore_,
+his _Brutus_ and _Orator_. He carried the MS. with him to Milan, and there
+gave it to Gaspar Bazizza. The character, however, in which it was
+written, was such, that few scholars or antiquaries in that city could
+read it. At length Cosmus, a young Veronese scholar, deciphered and
+transcribed the dialogue _De Oratore_. Blondus Flavius, the author of the
+_Italia Illustrata_, who had come in early youth from his native place,
+Forli, to Milan, transcribed the _Brutus_, and sent copies of it to
+Guarinus of Verona, and Leonard Justiniani, at Venice. By these means the
+rhetorical works of Cicero were soon diffused all over Italy. The
+discovery was hailed as a triumph, and subject of public congratulation.
+Poggio was informed of it while in England, and there awaited the arrival
+of a copy with the most lively impatience(659).
+
+The philosophic writings of Cicero have descended to us in a more
+imperfect state than his oratorical dialogues or orations. In consequence
+of the noble spirit of freedom and patriotism which they breathe, their
+proscription would no doubt speedily follow that of their author. There is
+a common story of a grandson of Augustus concealing one of Cicero’s
+philosophic works, on being detected while perusing it by his grandfather,
+and though he received his gracious permission to finish it, the anecdote
+shews that it was among the _libri prohibiti_. The chief reading, indeed,
+of Alexander Severus, was the _Republic_ and _Offices_(660): But Alexander
+was an imperial phœnix, which never revived in the Roman empire; and we
+hear little of Cicero during the reigns of the barbarian sovereigns of
+Italy in the middle ages.
+
+Petrarch procured an imperfect copy of Cicero’s treatise _De Legibus_,
+from the Lawyer Raymond Sorranza(661), who had a most extensive library,
+and to whom, as we have just seen, he had been indebted for a MS. of the
+dialogue _De Oratore_.
+
+No further discovery was subsequently made of the remaining parts of the
+work _De Legibus_. The other philosophical writings of Cicero were found
+by Petrarch among the books in his father’s library, or were recovered for
+him by the persons whom he employed for this purpose in almost every
+quarter of Italy: “Abeuntibus amicis,” says he, “et, ut fit, petentibus
+numquid e patriâ suâ vellem, respondebam,—nihil præter libros Ciceronis.”
+Petrarch frequently quotes the treatise _De Finibus_, as a work with which
+he was familiar. Leonard Aretine, however, has been generally considered
+as the discoverer of that dialogue, as also of the treatise _De Naturâ
+Deorum_(662).
+
+“There is no collection of my letters,” says Cicero, in one of his
+epistles to Atticus; “but Tiro has about seventy of them, and you can
+furnish some more. I must look over and correct them, and then they may be
+published.” This, however, never was accomplished by himself. After the
+revolution of the Roman state, the publication of his letters must have
+been dangerous, on account of the freedom with which he expresses himself
+concerning Octavius, and the ministers of his power. Cornelius Nepos
+mentions, that some of Cicero’s letters were published, but that sixteen
+books of Epistles to Atticus, from his consulship to his death, though
+extant, were by no means in common circulation(663). The reigns of the
+princes who succeeded Augustus, were not more favourable to freedom than
+his own; and hence the Familiar Letters, as well as those to Atticus,
+probably remained long in the cabinets of the curious, before they
+received any critical inspection. The Letters of Cicero, however, were
+well known in the middle ages, and even in those times pains were taken to
+have accurate copies of them. Lupus Ferrariensis procured duplicates of
+Cicero’s Epistles, in order to collate them with his own MSS., and thus to
+make up a correct and complete collection(664). John of Salisbury cites
+two of Cicero’s letters to Caius Cassius; one of which is now contained in
+the twelfth, and the other in the fifteenth book of the _Familiar
+Epistles_. In the Life of Julius Cæsar, which passes under the name of
+Julius Celsus, and which was written during the middle ages, extracts are
+occasionally made from the _Familiar Epistles_. They had become scarce,
+however, at the time when Petrarch found a copy of them at Verona, a place
+where he little expected to make such a discovery(665). This old MS.,
+which Victorius thinks of the age of the Florentine Pandects, ultimately
+came into the Medicean library; and a copy which Petrarch had transcribed
+from it, was brought from Padua to Florence by Niccolo Niccoli, at whose
+death it was placed in the library of St Marc in that city(666). Several
+scholars who inspected both have observed, that the transcript by Petrarch
+differed in some respects from the original(667). It was also marked with
+various corrections and glosses, in the hand-writing of Niccolo Niccoli
+himself(668). All the other MSS. of the Familiar Epistles flowed from this
+discovered by Petrarch, as we learn from a passage of Lagomarsinus, who
+speaks thus of the different _codices_ of the _Epistolæ Familiares_:
+“Quibus tamen ego codicibus non tantum tribuo, quantum uni illi omnium
+quotquot ubique terrarum, idem epistolarum corpus continentes, extant,
+vetustissimo, (et ex quo cæteros omnes qui usquam sunt tanquam e fonte ac
+capite manâsse, et Angelus Politianus, et Petrus Victorius memoriæ
+prodiderunt,) qui Florentiæ in Mediceo-Laurentianæ Bibliothecæ XLIX.
+adservatur numero IX. extra notatus(669).” There has been a good deal of
+doubt and discussion how these Letters first came to obtain the title of
+_Familiares_. They are not so called in any original MS. of Cicero, nor
+are they cited by this name in any ancient author, as Aulus Gellius, or
+Priscian. These writers generally quote each book of the Epistles by the
+name of the person to whom the first letter in that book is addressed.
+Thus Gellius cites the first book by the name of the Letters to Lentulus,
+because it commences with a letter to him. Nor are the MSS. in which the
+appellation of the _Epistolæ Familiares_ is employed uniform in the title.
+In some MSS. they are called _Epistolæ Familiares_, in others, _Epistolæ
+ad Familiares_, and in a Palatine MS. _Libri Epistolarum Familiarum_.
+
+Previous to the year 1340, Petrarch also discovered the _Epistles to
+Atticus_(670) which had been missing for many centuries; and on perusing
+them, declared that he now recognized Cicero as an inconsiderate and
+unfortunate old man. He copied them over with his own hand, and arranged
+them in their proper order. The MS. in his hand-writing passed, after his
+death, into the possession of Coluccio Salutati, and subsequently became
+the property of Coluccio’s disciple Leonard Aretine. Donatus, the son of
+Leonard, succeeded to it, and by him it was transferred to Donatus
+Acciaiolus. After his decease, it fell into the hands of an obscure
+grammarian, who gave it to Bartollomeo Cavalcanti, in whose library it was
+consulted by P. Victorius, and was afterwards bestowed on him by the
+owner. Victorius, highly valuing this MS., which he first recognised to be
+in the hand-writing of Petrarch, conceived that it would be preserved with
+greatest security in some public collection; and he accordingly presented
+it to Cosmo, the first Duke of Tuscany, to be deposited in the Medicean
+library(671). With regard to the most ancient MS. from which Petrarch made
+the copy, it unfortunately was lost, as Petrus Victorius laments in one of
+his Epistles(672). “Utinam inveniretur exemplum, unde has ad Atticum
+descripsit Petrarca, ut exstat illud, quo usus est in describendis alteris
+illis, quæ Familiares appellantur, de cujus libri antiquitate, omni
+veneratione digna, magnifice multa vereque alio loco prædicavi.” It thus
+appears, that the Epistles to Atticus were well known to Petrarch. Still,
+however, as they were scarce in the fifteenth century, Poggio, who found a
+copy, while attending the Council of Constance, was considered in his own
+age as the discoverer of the entire collection of the _Epistles to
+Atticus_, and has been regarded in the same light by modern writers.
+
+The three books of the Letters of Cicero to his brother Quintus, were
+found by an Italian grammarian, Casparinus of Bergamo, who died in the
+year 1431; and who some time before his death had taken great pains to
+amend their corrupted text(673). That they were much corrupted, may be
+conjectured from what we know of the manner in which they were originally
+written, for it appears, from one of the Letters of Cicero(674), that
+Quintus had complained that he could scarcely read some of his former
+letters. Now, when Quintus could scarcely read his brother’s hand-writing,
+what must have been the difficulties and mistakes of the _Librarius_ by
+whom they were first collected and copied?
+
+Cicero’s translation of Aratus appears to have been extant in the ninth
+century. Lupus of Ferrieres had an imperfect copy of it, and begs a
+complete copy from his correspondent Ansbald. “Tu autem,” says he, “huic
+nostro cursori Tullium in Arato trade; ut ex eo, quem me impetraturum
+credo, quæ deesse illi Egil noster aperuit, suppleantur.(675)”
+
+
+
+Various editions of separate portions of the writings of Cicero were
+printed before the publication of a complete collection of his works. _The
+Orations_—the treatise _De Oratore_—the _Opera Philosophica_—the _Epistolæ
+Familiares_—and _Ad Atticum_, were all edited in Italy between the years
+1466 and 1471—most of them being printed at Rome by Sweynheim and
+Pannartz. The most ancient printing-press in Italy was that established at
+the Monastery of Subiaco, in the Campagna di Roma, by these printers.
+Sweynheim and Pannartz were two German scholars, who had been induced to
+settle at that convent by the circumstance that it was chiefly inhabited
+by German monks. In 1467, they went from Subiaco, to Rome(676); after this
+removal, they received in correcting their editions, the assistance of a
+poor but eminent scholar, Giandrea de Bussi; and were aided by the
+patronage of Andrea, Bishop of Aleria, who furnished prefaces to many of
+their classical editions. Notwithstanding the rage for classical MSS.
+which had so recently existed, and the novelty, usefulness, and importance
+of the art which they first introduced into Italy, as also the support
+which they received from men of rank and learning, they laboured under the
+greatest difficulties, and prosecuted their undertaking with very
+inadequate compensation, as we learn from a petition presented, 1472, in
+their names, to Pope Sextus, by the chief patron, the Bishop of Aleria.
+Their necessities were probably produced by the number of copies of each
+impression which they threw off, and which exceeding the demand, they were
+so encumbered by those left on their hands, as to be reduced to the
+greatest poverty and distress(677). The first book which they printed at
+Rome, was the _Epistolæ Familiares_ of Cicero.
+
+Alexander Minutianus, who published an edition of the whole works at
+Milan, 1498, in four volumes folio, was the first person who comprised the
+scattered publications of Cicero in one uniform book. Harles informs us,
+in one passage, that Minutianus did not consult any MSS. in the
+preparation of this edition, but merely collated the editions of the
+separate parts of Cicero’s writings previously published, so that his work
+is only a continued reimpression of preceding editions(678); but he
+elsewhere mentions, that he had inspected the MSS. of the Orations which
+Poggio had brought from Germany to Italy(679). In the Orations, Minutianus
+chiefly followed the Brescian edition, 1483, which was itself founded on
+that of Rome. The work was printed off, not according to the best
+arrangement, but as the copies of the preceding editions successively
+reached him, which he himself acknowledges in the preface. “Sed quam
+necessitas præscripsit dum vetustiora exemplaria ex diversis et longinquis
+locis exspectamus.” “If we peruse Saxius,” says Mr Dibdin, “we shall see
+with what toil, and at what a heavy expense, this celebrated work of
+Minutianus was compiled.” De Bure and Ernesti are lavish in their praises
+of its typographical beauty. The latter says it is printed “grandi modulo,
+chartis et literis pulchris et splendidis.” The Aldine edition, which was
+published in parts from 1512 to 1523, is not accounted a very critical or
+correct one, though the latter portion of it was printed under the care of
+Naugerius. It would be endless to enumerate the subsequent editions of
+Cicero. That of Petrus Victorius, however, whom Harles calls _Ciceronis
+Æsculapius_, printed at Venice in 1534–37, in four volumes folio, should
+not be forgotten, as there is no commentator to whom Cicero has been more
+indebted than to Victorius, particularly in the correction and emendation
+of the Epistles. The edition of Lambinus, Paris, 1566, also deserves
+notice. Lambinus was an acute and daring commentator, who made many
+corrections on the text, but adopted some alterations too rashly. From his
+time downwards, Harles thinks that the editors of Cicero may be divided
+into two classes; some following the bold changes introduced by Lambinus,
+and others preferring the more scrupulous text of Victorius. Of the latter
+class was Gruterus, who, in his edition published at Hamburgh, 1618,
+appears to have obstinately rejected even the most obvious emendations
+which had been recently made on the text of his author. The three editions
+of Ernesti’s Cicero, (Lips. 1737, Hal. Sax. 1758–74,) and the three of
+Olivet’s, (Paris, 1740, Geneva, 1758, Oxon. 1783,) are too well known to
+be particularized or described. Olivet did not collate MSS.; but he
+compared with each other what he considered as the four most important
+editions of Cicero; those of P. Victorius, Paullus Manutius, Lambinus, and
+Gruterus. In 1795, the first volume of a new edition of Cicero, by Beck,
+was printed at Leipsic, and since that period, three more volumes, at long
+intervals, have fallen from the press. The last volume which appeared, was
+in 1807; and along with the three by which it was preceded, comprehends
+the Orations of Cicero. The preface contains a very full account of
+preceding editions, and the most authoritative MSS. of Cicero. Ernesti’s
+editions were adopted as the basis of the text; but the editor departs
+from them where he sees occasion. He does not propose many new emendations
+of his own; but he seems a very acute judge of the merit of various
+readings, and a judicious selector from the corrections of others. While
+this edition of Beck was proceeding in Germany, Schütz brought forth
+another, which is now completed, except part of the _Index Latinitatis_.
+There are few notes subjoined to the text; but long summaries are prefixed
+to each oration and work of Cicero; and the _Rhetorica ad Herennium_ is
+introduced by an ample dissertation concerning the real author of that
+treatise. A new arrangement of the _Epistolæ Familiares_ has also been
+adopted. They are no longer printed, as in most other editions, in a
+chronological series, but are classed according to the individuals to whom
+they are addressed. The whole publication is dedicated to Great Britain
+and the Allied Sovereigns, in a long columnar panegyric.
+
+There have also been lately published in Germany, several learned and
+critical editions of separate portions of the works of Cicero,
+particularly his Philosophical Writings. The edition of all his
+Philosophic Treatises, by Goerenz, which is now proceeding and already
+comprehends the _Academica_, the dialogues _De Legibus_ and _De Finibus_,
+is distinguished by intelligent Prefaces and Excursuses on the periods of
+the composition of the respective Dialogues; as also on the design of the
+author in their composition.
+
+
+
+The translations of Cicero are so numerous, that for the Italian
+translations I must refer the reader to Paitoni, _Biblioteca degli autori
+antichi Greci e Latini Volgarizzati_, Tom. I. p. 219; and Argelati,
+_Biblioteca degli Volgarizzatori_, Tom. I. p. 214. For French versions, to
+Goujet, _Bibliotheque Françoise_, Tom. II. p. 221; and, for English, to
+Brüggemann, _View of the Editions and Translations of the Ancient Greek
+and Latin authors_, p. 481.
+
+               ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
+
+For the benefit of those who wish to prosecute their inquiries into the
+subject of Roman Literature, I have subjoined a note of some of the most
+important Books which treat of the subject. An asterisk is prefixed to the
+titles of those works which have been consulted by me in the compilation
+of the preceding pages.
+
+
+AIMERICHIUS.—_Specimen veteris Romanæ Literaturæ deperditæ vel adhuc
+latentis, seu Syllabus Historicus et Criticus veterum olim notæ
+eruditionis Romanorum, ab urbe conditâ ad Honorii Augusti excessum, eorum
+imprimis quorum Latina opera vel omnino vel ex parte desiderantur_.
+Ferrara, 1784. 8vo.
+
+“This work is intended to give an idea of Roman literature, from the
+foundation of the city to the death of the Emperor Honorius. The preface,
+written by a friend of the author, gives an account of the manner in which
+the Romans lived, both in the capital and in the provinces, during this
+long period. The historical and literary Syllabus contains, under nine
+articles, a variety of literary matters. In the first, the Abbé
+Aimerichius gives us brief notices, and a critical review of the ancient
+Roman writers, both Pagan and Christian, whose works were extant in public
+or private libraries, before the death of the Emperor Honorius. In the
+second, we have the titles and subjects of several works which have been
+lost, but which have been cited or indicated by contemporary writers, or
+writers nearly such, whose testimonies are related by our author. The
+third contains an account of the most celebrated public or private
+libraries, that were known at Rome before the death of Honorius: and, in
+the fourth, we have the author’s inquiries concerning the pronunciation of
+the Romans, their manner of writing, and the changes which took place in
+their orthography. In the fifth, the Abbé treats of the magistracies that
+could not be obtained, either at Rome or in the provinces, but by men of
+letters, as also of rites and sacrifices, of luxury, riches, public shows,
+&c. In the sixth, he gives his particular opinion concerning the ancient
+literature of the Romans, and the mixture of the Latin and Greek languages
+which they employed, both in their conversation and in their writings. The
+seventh contains an indication of the principal heresies that disturbed
+the church, from the time of the Apostles to that of Honorius; and the
+eighth several memorable facts and maxims, not generally known, which
+belong to the literary, civil, military, and ecclesiastical history of
+this period. In the concluding article, the Abbé takes notice of the Latin
+works which had been lost for a considerable time, and shows how, and by
+whom, they were first discovered.”—From this account, which I have
+extracted from Horne’s _Introduction to the Study of Bibliography_, I
+regret extremely that I have had no opportunity of consulting the work of
+Aimerichius.
+
+
+BLESSIG.—_De Origine Philosophiæ apud Romanos_. Strasburgh, 1770. 4to.
+
+
+BECMANNUS.—_Manductio ad linguam Latinam cum Tractatu de Originibus Linguæ
+Latinæ_. 1608. 8vo.
+
+
+*CASAUBON.—_De Satyrica Græcorum Poësi et Romanorum Satira libri duo, in
+quibus etiam Poëtæ recensentur, qui in utrâque poësi floruerunt_. Halæ,
+1774. 8vo.
+
+This treatise, which is one of the most learned and agreeable productions
+of Casaubon, is the source of almost everything that has been written by
+modern authors, on the subject of the satiric poetry of the Romans.
+Casaubon traces its early history in the Fescennine verses, the Atellane
+fables, and the satires of Ennius and Lucilius, and vindicates to the
+Romans the invention of this species of composition, for which, he
+contends, they had no model in the poetry of the Greeks.
+
+
+CELLARIUS.—_Dissertatio de Studiis Romanorum Literariis_. Halle, 1698.
+4to.
+
+
+CORRADUS.—_Quæstura—Partes duæ, quarum altera de Ciceronis Vitâ et
+Libris—Altera Ciceronis Libros permultis locis emendat._ Lips. 1754. 8vo.
+
+
+*CRUSIUS.—_Lives of the Roman Poets_. London, 1733. 2 Vols.
+
+
+*EBERHARDT.—_Uber den Zustand der Schönen Wissenschaften bei den Römern_.
+Altona, 1801. 8vo.
+
+This work was written by a Swede, and in the Swedish language. It
+contains, in its original form, a very superficial and inaccurate sketch
+of the subject; but some valuable notes and corrections accompany the
+German translation.
+
+
+*FABRICIUS.—_Bibliotheca Latina, digesta et aucta diligentiâ Jo. Aug.
+Ernesti_. Lips. 1773. 3 Tom. 8vo.
+
+The well-known and justly-esteemed _Bibliotheca_ of Fabricius gives an
+account of all the Latin writers from Plautus to Marcian Capella. In most
+of the articles we have a biographical sketch of the author—a list of his
+writings—an account of the most authoritative MSS. of his works—of the
+best editions, and of the most celebrated translations in the modern
+languages of Europe.
+
+
+FUHRMANN.—_Handbuch der Classischen Literatur, oder Anleitung zur Kentniss
+der Griechischen und Römischen Classischen Schriftsteller, ihren
+Schriften, und der besten Ausgaben, und Uebersetzungen derselben_.
+Rudolstadt, 1809–10.
+
+Two of the volumes of this work relate to Roman literature. It is chiefly
+bibliographical, containing very full accounts of the editions and
+translations of the Classics which have appeared, particularly in Germany;
+but there are also some critical accounts of the works of the Roman
+authors: these are chiefly extracted from Journals and Reviews, and, in
+consequence, the author frequently repeats the same thing in different
+words, and still more frequently contradicts himself.
+
+
+*FUHRMANN.—_Anleitung zur Geschichte der Classischen Literatur der
+Griechen und Römer_. Rudolstadt, 1816.
+
+An abridgment of the preceding work.
+
+
+*FUNCCIUS.—_De Origine et Pueritiâ, De Adolescentiâ, Virili Ætate, et
+Senectute Linguæ Latinæ_. Frankfort, 1720.
+
+This is one of the most learned and valuable works extant on the subject
+of Latin literature. In the first tract, _De Pueritiâ_, the author chiefly
+treats of the origin and progress of the Roman language.
+
+
+*GAUDENTIUS PAGANINUS.—_De Philosophiæ ap. Romanos Ortu et Progressu_.
+Pisa, 1643, 4.
+
+A very dull and imperfect account of the state of philosophy among the
+Romans, from the earliest periods to the time of Boethius.
+
+
+*HANKIUS. (MART.)—_De Romanarum Rerum Scriptoribus_. Lips. 1687. 4to.
+
+The first part of this work contains a succinct account of the ancient
+Roman Annalists and Historians. The latter part relates to modern writers
+who treated of Roman affairs.
+
+
+*HARLES. (TH. CHRIST.)—_Introductio in Notitiam Literaturæ Romanæ,
+imprimis Scriptorum Latinorum_. Noriberg. 1781. 2 Tom. 8vo.
+
+This work of Harles, as far as it extends, is written on the same plan,
+and is much of the same description, as the _Bibliotheca_ of Fabricius. It
+is not continued farther, however, than the Augustan age inclusive.
+
+
+*HARLES. (TH. CHRIST.)—_Brevior Notitia Literaturæ Romanæ, imprimis
+Scriptorum Latinorum_. Lips. 1788. 1 Tom. 8vo.
+
+
+*HARLES. (TH. CHRIST.)—_Supplementa ad Breviorem Notitiam Literaturæ
+Romanæ_. Lips. 1788. 2 Tom. 8vo.
+
+This work, and the preceding, are on the same plan as the _Introductio_;
+but bring down the history of Roman writers, and the editions of their
+works, to the latest periods. It is much to be regretted, that these works
+of Harles had not been incorporated into one; since, taken separately,
+each is incomplete, and collectively, they abound in repetitions.
+
+
+*KLÜGLING. (C. F.)—_Supplementa ad Breviorem Notitiam Literaturæ Romanæ_.
+Lips. 1817.
+
+This Supplement to Harles, contains an account of the editions of the
+Classics which had appeared chiefly in Germany, subsequent to the
+publication of the _Brevior Notitia_.
+
+
+KÖNIG.—_De Satirâ Romanorum_. Oldenburgh, 1796.
+
+
+KRIEGK.—_Diatribe de Veterum Romanorum Peregrinationibus Academicis_.
+Jenæ, 1704. 4to.
+
+
+LEO (ANNIBAL DI).—_Memorie di Pacuvio_. Neapol. 1763.
+
+
+MEIEROTTO.—_De Præcipuis rerum Romanarum Scriptoribus_. Berlin, 1792.
+folio.
+
+
+*MÜLLER.—_Einleitung zu nöthiger Kentniss und Gebrauche der alten
+Lateinischen Schriftsteller_. Dresden, 1747. 5 Tom. 8vo.
+
+
+*MOINE D’ORGEVAL.—_Considerations sur le Progrés des Belles Lettres chez
+les Romains_. Paris, 1749.
+
+
+*OSANNUS.—_Analecta Critica, Poësis Romanorum scænicæ reliquias
+illustrantia_. Berlin, 1717.
+
+This is a work of considerable ingenuity and research. It contains some
+discussion concerning the date at which regular comedies and tragedies
+were first exhibited at Rome; but it is chiefly occupied with comparisons
+between the Fragments of the ancient Latin Dramatists, and the
+corresponding passages in the Greek originals.
+
+
+*SAGITTARIUS (CASP.)—_Commentatio de Vitâ et Scriptis Liv. Andronici,
+Nævii, Ennii, Cæcilii, Pacuvii, Attii, Attilii, Lucilii, Afranii,
+Catonis_. Altenburg, 1672.
+
+This is a small volume of 110 pages, which has now become extremely
+scarce.
+
+
+SAGITTARIUS (CASP.)—_De Vitâ, scriptis, editionibus, interpretibus,
+lectione, atque imitatione Plauti, Terentii, Ciceronis_. Altenburg, 1671.
+
+
+*SCHOELL.—_Histoire Abregée de la Litterature Romaine_. Paris, 1815. 4
+Tom. 8vo.
+
+See above. Preface, p. xiii.
+
+
+*TIRABOSCHI.—_Storia della Litteratura Italiana_. Modena, 1787. Tom. I.
+and II.
+
+See above. Preface, p. xiii.
+
+
+*VOSSIUS (GERARD).—_De Historicis Latinis Libri tres_. Lugd. Bat. 1651.
+
+
+*WALCHIUS.—_Historia Critica Latinæ Linguæ_. Lips. 1761.
+
+
+*ZIEGLER.—_De Mimis Romanorum_. Gotting. 1789.
+
+
+
+
+
+                           CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
+
+
+
+  +--------------+--------+--------+
+  |              | Born.  | Dies.  |
+  |              | A.U.C. | A.U.C. |
+  |L. Andronicus |        | 534    |
+  |Nævius        |        | 550    |
+  |Ennius        | 515    | 585    |
+  |Plautus       | 525    | 570    |
+  |Cæcilius      |        | 586    |
+  |Terence       | 560    | 594    |
+  |Pacuvius      | 534    | 624    |
+  |Attius        | 584    | 664    |
+  |Lucilius      | 605    | 659?   |
+  |Lucretius     | 658    | 702    |
+  |Catullus      | 667    | 708?   |
+  |Laberius      |        | 710    |
+  |Cato          | 519    | 605    |
+  |Varro         | 637    | 727    |
+  |Sallust       | 668    | 718    |
+  |Cæsar         | 656    | 709    |
+  |Hortensius    | 640    | 703    |
+  |Cicero        | 647    | 710    |
+  +--------------+--------+--------+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  INDEX
+
+
+      Afranius, his Comedies, vol. i. p. 170.
+      Agriculture, advantages of Italy for, ii. 6–11.
+      Antias, Q. Valerius, Latin Annalist, ii. 74.
+      Antipater, Cælius, Latin Annalist, ii. 72.
+      Antonius, Marcus, character of his eloquence, ii. 117.
+            His death, 119.
+      Arcesilaus founds the New Academy, ii. 208.
+      Asellio, Sempronius, Latin Annalist, ii. 73.
+      Atellane Fables, i. 229.
+      Attius, his Tragedies, i. 214.
+
+      Brutus, his Historical Epitomes, ii. 107.
+
+      Cæcilius, his Comedies, i. 168.
+      Cæcina, his history, ii. 108.
+      Cæsar compared with Xenophon, ii. 94.
+            His Commentaries, 95–101.
+            His Ephemeris, whether the same work with his Commentaries,
+            101.
+            His Anticatones, 102.
+            His Analogia, 103.
+      Calvus, Licinius, his Epigrams, i. 322.
+            His orations, ii. 131.
+      Carmen Saliare, i. 43.
+      Carneades teaches the Greek philosophy at Rome, ii. 211.
+      Cato, the Censor, his work on Agriculture, ii. 12–16.
+            His Orations, 16.
+            His work De Originibus, 18.
+            On Medicine, 20–21.
+      Catullus, i. 271–320.
+      Cethegus, Marcus, an orator, ii. 110.
+      Cicero, his Orations, ii. 152.
+            Compared with Demosthenes, 192.
+            His works on Rhetoric, 193.
+            De Oratore, 195.
+            Brutus, 198.
+            The Orator, 199.
+            Topica, 200.
+            Rhetorica ad Herennium, inquiry concerning the author of, 202.
+            His philosophical works—De Legibus, 223.
+            De Finibus, 229.
+            Academica, 232.
+            Tusculanæ Disputationes, 236.
+            De Naturâ Deorum, 243.
+            De Officiis, 257.
+            De Senectute, 259.
+            De Republica, 263.
+            His Epistles, 278.
+      Columna Rostrata, inscription on the, i. 46.
+      Cotta, his style of oratory, ii. 122.
+      Crassus, Lucius, character of his eloquence, ii. 120.
+            His death, ibid.
+            Compared with Antony, 121.
+
+      Decemviral Laws, ii. 134.
+      Dialogue, remarks on this species of composition, ii. 194.
+
+      Eloquence, Roman, commencement of, ii. 109.
+      Ennius, his tragedies, i. 67.
+            Annals, 78.
+            Translation of Euhemerus, 94.
+      Etruscans, their origin, i. 20.
+            Their conquests, 26.
+            Religion, 29.
+            Arts, 35.
+      Eugubian Tables, i. 47.
+
+      Fabius Pictor, Latin Annalist, ii. 67–71.
+      Fratres Arvales, hymn of the, i. 43.
+
+      Galba, Sergius, an orator, ii. 110.
+      Gracchi, oratory of the, ii. 113.
+
+      Hirtius, his continuation of Cæsar’s Commentaries, ii. 105.
+      History, Roman, uncertainty of, ii. 57–67.
+      Hortensius, his luxury and magnificence, ii. 124.
+            His villas at Tusculum, Bauli, and Laurentum, 124, 125.
+            Character of his eloquence, 127.
+            His descendants, 130, Note.
+
+      Jurisconsults, Roman, account of, ii. 138.
+
+      Laberius, i. 328.
+      Lælius, his oratory compared with that of Scipio, ii. 111.
+      Latin Language, its origin, i. 32.
+            Its changes, 48.
+      Laws, Roman, ii. 133–138.
+      Leges Regiæ, ii. 133.
+      Livius Andronicus, i. 54–58.
+      Lucceius, his History of the Social War, ii. 107.
+      Lucilius, i. 238–248.
+      Lucretius, i. 250–271.
+      Lucullus, his patronage of learning, ii. 51.
+      Luscius Lavinius, i. 171.
+
+      Magna Græcia, its settlements, i. 50.
+      Mimes, their origin and subjects, i. 324.
+
+      Nævius, i. 58–62.
+
+      Pacuvius, i. 209.
+      Plautus, i. 96–168.
+      Philosophy, Greek, introduction of, at Rome, ii. 209.
+      Plebiscita, account of the, ii. 136.
+      Prætor, account of the office of, ii. 141.
+      Publius Syrus, i. 332.
+
+      Quadrigarius, Claudius, Latin Annalist, ii. 73.
+
+      Sallust, his character, ii. 82.
+            His Gardens, ibid.
+            His conspiracy of Catiline, and Jugurthine war, 84–88.
+            His Roman History, 92.
+      Satire, Roman, origin of, i. 232.
+      Senatusconsultum, what, ii. 137.
+      Sisenna, Roman Annalist, ii. 75.
+      Sulpicius, his worthless character, ii. 121.
+            His style of oratory, 122.
+      Sylla, his library, ii. 50.
+            His Memoirs of his Life, 77.
+            His character, 78.
+
+      Terence, i. 175–206.
+            Compared with Plautus, 206.
+      Theatre, Roman, its construction, i. 337–353.
+      Tyrannio, his library, ii. 52.
+      Trabea, i. 173.
+
+      Varro, his farms and villas, ii. 25.
+            His work on Agriculture, 28–34.
+            De Lingua Latina, 34.
+            Other works of Varro, 40.
+
+
+                                  FINIS.
+
+
+JAMES KAY, JUN. PRINTER.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                FOOTNOTES
+
+
+_    1 Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis_, T. II. c. 20.
+
+_    2 Antiquitat. Rom._ Lib. I.
+
+_    3 Geograph._ Lib. VI.
+
+_    4 Hist. Nat._ Lib. XVIII. c. 11.; XXXVII. c. 12.
+
+    5 Virgil, _Georg._ Lib. II.
+
+    6 Plutarch, _in Numa_.
+
+    7 Livy, _Epitome_, Lib. XVIII. Valer. Maxim. Lib. IV. c. 4. § 6.
+
+    8 Cicero, _De Senectute_, c. 16.
+
+    9 Rapin, _Hortorum_, Lib. IV.
+
+   10 Bonstetten, _Voyage dans le Latium_, p. 274.
+
+   11 J. C. L. Sismondi, _Tableau de l’Agriculture Toscane_, and
+      Chasteauvieux, _Lettres Ecrites d’Italie_. Paris, 1816. 2 Tom.
+
+   12 Plutarch, _in Cato._
+
+   13 Plutarch, _in Cato._
+
+   14 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XIV. c. 4; Lib. XVI. c. 39.
+
+   15 Plutarch, _in Cato._
+
+   16 Ibid.
+
+_   17 In Cato._
+
+   18 C. 160.
+
+   19 Cicero, _Brutus_, c. 17.
+
+   20 Vegetius, Lib. I. c. 8.
+
+   21 Plutarch, _in Cato._
+
+   22 Valerius Maximus, Lib. VIII. c. 7. Valerius says, he was in his 86th
+      year; but Cato did not survive beyond his 85th. Cicero, _in Bruto_,
+      c. 20. Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XIX. c. 1.
+
+   23 Livy, Lib. XXXIX. c. 40.
+
+   24 Lib. XXXIV. c. 2.
+
+_   25 Noct. Attic._ Lib. VII. c. 3.
+
+_   26 Brutus_, c. 17.
+
+   27 Lib. XXXIX. c. 40.
+
+_   28 Noct. Attic._ Lib. X. c. 3.
+
+_   29 Hist. Nat._ Lib. VIII. c. 5.
+
+_   30 Brutus_, c. 17.
+
+_   31 Brutus_, c. 87.
+
+   32 Quintil. _Inst. Orat._ Lib. III. c. 1.
+
+   33 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXV. c. 2.
+
+   34 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXV. c. 2.
+
+   35 Livy, Lib. IV. c. 25.
+
+   36 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXIX. c. 1.
+
+   37 Plutarch, _in Cato._
+
+   38 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XX. c. 9.
+
+   39 Ibid. Lib. XXIX. c. 1.
+
+   40 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXIX. c. 1.
+
+_   41 Stor. del. Let. Ital._ Part. III. Lib. III. c. 5. § 5.
+
+   42 See Spon, _Recherches Curieuses d’Antiquité_. Diss. 27. Bayle,
+      _Dict. Hist._ art. Porcius, Rem. H.
+
+      In what degree of estimation medicine was held at Rome, and by what
+      class of people it was practised, were among the _quæstiones vexatæ_
+      of classical literature in our own country in the beginning and
+      middle of last century. Dr Mead, in his _Oratio Herveiana_, and
+      Spon, in his _Recherches d’Antiquité_, followed out an idea first
+      suggested by Casaubon, in his animadversions on Suetonius, that
+      physicians in Rome were held in high estimation, and were frequently
+      free citizens; that it was the surgeons who were the _servile
+      pecus_; and that the erroneous idea of physicians being slaves,
+      arose from confounding the two orders. These authors chiefly rested
+      their argument on classical passages, from which it appears that
+      physicians were called the friends of Cicero, Cæsar, and Pompey.
+      Middleton, in a well known Latin dissertation, maintains that there
+      was no distinction at Rome between the physician, surgeon, and
+      apothecary, and that, till the time of Julius Cæsar at least, the
+      art of medicine was exercised only by foreigners and slaves, or by
+      freedmen, who, having obtained liberty for their proficiency in its
+      various branches, opened a shop for its practice.—_De Medicorum apud
+      veteres Romanos degentium Conditione Dissertatio_. _Miscellaneous
+      Works_, Vol. IV. See on this topic, _Schlæger, Histor. litis, De
+      Medicorum apud veteres Romanos degentium Conditione. Helmst._ 1740.
+
+_   43 Noct. Attic._ Lib. VII. c. 10.
+
+_   44 De Officiis_, Lib. I. c. 29. Multa sunt multorum facete dicta: ut
+      ea, quæ a sene Catone collecta sunt, quæ vocant apophthegmata.
+
+_   45 Sat._ Lib. I. 2.
+
+   46 For Cato’s family, see Aulus Gellius, _Noct. Attic._ Lib. XIII. c.
+      19.
+
+   47 We have many minute descriptions of the villas of luxurious Romans,
+      from the time of Hortensius to Pliny, but there are so few accounts
+      of those in the simpler age of Scipio, that I have subjoined the
+      description of Seneca, who saw this mansion precisely in the same
+      state it was when possessed and inhabited by the illustrious
+      conqueror of Hannibal. “Vidi villam structam lapide quadrato, murum
+      circumdatum sylvæ, turres quoque in propugnaculum villæ utrimque
+      subrectas. Cisternam ædificiis et viridibus subditam, quæ sufficere
+      in usum exercitûs posset. Balneolum angustum, tenebricosum ex
+      consuetudine antiquâ. Magna ergo me voluptas subit contemplantem
+      mores Scipionis et nostros. In hoc angulo, ille Carthaginis horror,
+      cui Roma debet quod tantum semel capta est, abluebat corpus
+      laboribus rusticis fessum; exercebat enim operâ se, terramque, ut
+      mos fuit priscis, ipse subigebat. Sub hoc ille tecto tam sordido
+      stetit—hoc illum pavimentum tam vile sustinuit.” Senec. _Epist._ 86.
+
+   48 Lib. II.
+
+_   49 Trionfo della Fama_, c. 3.
+
+   50 Varro, _De Re Rusticâ_, Lib. II. proœm.
+
+   51 Cæsar, _Comment. de Bello Civili_, Lib. II. c. 17, &c.
+
+   52 Suetonius, _in Jul. Cæs._ c. 44.
+
+_   53 Epist. Fam._ Lib. IX. Ep. 6. Ed. Schütz.
+
+_   54 De Re Rusticâ_, Lib. II.
+
+   55 Cicero, _Philip._ II. c. 40.
+
+   56 See Castell’s _Villas of the Ancients_.
+
+_   57 De Re Rusticâ_, Lib. III. c. 5.
+
+_   58 Classical Tour in Italy_.
+
+   59 Appian, _De Bello Civili_, Lib. IV. 47.
+
+   60 Berwick’s _Lives of Asin. Pollio, M. Varro, &c._
+
+_   61 Scaligerana prima_, p. 144.
+
+   62 Πολυγραφωτατος. _Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. III. Ep. 18.
+
+   63 Cicero, _De Divinat._ Lib. I. c. 18. Seneca, _Epist._ 98.
+
+   64 Suetonius, _De Illust. Grammat._ c. 1.
+
+   65 Suetonius (_De Illust. Gram._) says, that he was sent by Attalus, at
+      the moment of the death of Ennius. Now, Ennius died in 585, at which
+      time Eumenes reigned at Pergamus, and was not succeeded by Attalus
+      till the year 595; so that Suetonius was mistaken, either as to the
+      year in which Crates came to Rome, or the king by whom he was sent—I
+      rather think he was wrong in the latter point; for, if Crates was
+      the first Greek rhetorician who taught at Rome, which seems
+      universally admitted, he must have been there before 593, in which
+      year the rhetoricians were expressly banished from Rome, along with
+      the philosophers.
+
+   66 Suetonius, c. 2.
+
+   67 Court de Gebelin, _Monde Primitif_, T. VI. Disc. Prelim. p. 12.
+
+_   68 Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. XIII. Ep. 12.
+
+   69 Ibid. Lib. XIII. Ep. 18.
+
+_   70 Epist. Famil._ Lib. IX. Ep. 8.
+
+   71 Aulus Gellius, Lib. I. c. 18
+
+   72 See also as to the Celtic derivations, Court de Gebelin, _Monde
+      Primitif_. Disc. Prelim. T. VI. p. 23.
+
+   73 Jupiter, Juno, Saturnus, Vulcanus, Vesta, et alii plurimi quos Varro
+      conatur ad mundi partes sive elementa transferre. (_St August.
+      Civit. Dei_, Lib. VIII. c. 5.)
+
+   74 Lactantius, _Div. Inst._ Lib. I. c. 6.
+
+   75 Bolingbroke, _Use and Study of History_, Lett. 3.
+
+   76 Au. Gellius, Lib. XIV. c. 7.
+
+   77 St Augustine, _De Civitat. Dei_, Lib. XIX. c. 1.
+
+   78 Antiochus of Ascalon, a teacher of the old Academy.
+
+   79 Fabricius, _Biblioth. Latin._ Lib. I. c. 7.
+
+   80 Au. Gellius, _Noct. Attic._ Lib. XIII. c. 11.
+
+_   81 Ibid._ Lib. VII. c. 16.
+
+   82 Tom. I. p. 241.
+
+   83 It was long believed, that Pope Gregory the First had destroyed the
+      works of Varro, in order to conceal the plagiarisms of St Augustine,
+      who had borrowed largely from the theological and philosophic
+      writings of the Roman scholar. This, however, is not likely. That
+      illustrious Father of the Christian Church is constantly referring
+      to the learned heathen, without any apparent purpose of concealment;
+      and he extols him in terms calculated to attract notice to the
+      subject of his eulogy. Nor did St Augustine possess such meagre
+      powers of genius, as to require him to build up the city of the true
+      God from the crumbling fragments of Pagan temples.
+
+_   84 Academ. Poster._ Lib. I. c. 3.
+
+   85 Morhof, _Polyhistor_. Tom. I. Lib. I. Falsterus, _Hist. Rei Liter.
+      ap. Roman._
+
+   86 Middendorp, _De Academ._ Lib. III.
+
+   87 Tiraboschi, _Stor. dell Lett. Ital._ Part III. Lib. III. c. 8.
+
+   88 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XVIII. c. 3.
+
+   89 Plutarch, _in Paul. Æmil._
+
+   90 Id. _in Sylla_.
+
+   91 Plutarch, _in Lucullo_.
+
+_   92 Ibid._
+
+_   93 Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. IV. Ep. 4 and 8.
+
+_   94 Epist. ad Quint. Frat._ Lib. II. Ep. 4. According to some writers,
+      it was a younger Tyrannio, the disciple of the elder, who arranged
+      Cicero’s library, and taught his nephew.—Mater, _Ecole
+      d’Alexandrie_, Tom. I. p. 179.
+
+   95 Suidas, _Lexic._
+
+   96 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. VII. c. 30.
+
+   97 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXXV. c. 14.
+
+   98 Au. Gellius, Lib. IV. c. 9.
+
+   99 Plutarch, _in Cicero._
+
+_  100 Chron. Euseb._
+
+  101 Suetonius, _in August._ c. 94.
+
+  102 Au. Gellius, _Noct. Attic._ Lib. XIX. c. 14.
+
+_  103 Ibid._
+
+  104 Au. Gellius, Lib. X. c. 4.
+
+  105 See farther, with regard to Nigidius Figulus, Bayle, _Dict. Histor._
+      Art. Nigidius, and _Mem. de l’Acad. des Inscriptions_, Tom. XXIX. p.
+      190.
+
+  106 Au. Gellius, _Noct. Attic._ Lib. XIII. c. 9.
+
+  107 Griffet, _De Arte Regnandi_.
+
+_  108 De Oratore_, Lib. II. c. 13.
+
+  109 Vopiscus, _Vit. Taciti Imp._
+
+_  110 Römische Geschichte_, Tom. I. p. 367.
+
+  111 Cicero, _De Oratore_, Lib. II. c. 13.
+
+  112 Lib. I. c. 2.
+
+  113 Quæ in Commentariis Pontificum aliisque publicis privatisque erant
+      monumentis, incensâ urbe, pleræque interîere. Livy, Lib. VI. c. 1.
+
+  114 Livy, Lib. VI. c. 1.
+
+  115 Polybius, Lib. III. c. 22, 25, 26.
+
+_  116 Epist._ Lib. II. Ep. 1.
+
+  117 Lib. IV. p. 257. ed. Sylburg, 1586.
+
+  118 Lib. II. p. 111.
+
+  119 Lib. III. p. 174.
+
+  120 Lib. IV. c. 7.
+
+  121 Lib. III. c. 22.
+
+_  122 Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXXIV. c. 14.
+
+_  123 Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXXIV. c. 14.
+
+  124 Livy, Lib. IV. c. 23.
+
+  125 Dionys. Halic. Lib. I. p. 60.
+
+  126 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXXV. c. 2.
+
+_  127 In Numa_.
+
+  128 Lib. VIII. c. 40.
+
+  129 His laudationibus historia rerum nostrarum est facta mendosior.
+      Multa enim scripta sunt in iis, quæ facta non sunt—falsi triumphi,
+      plures consulatus, genera etiam falsa. _Brutus_, c. 16.
+
+  130 Lib. III. c. 20.
+
+_  131 L’Evesque, Hist. Critique de la Republique Romaine_, T. I.
+
+  132 Livy, Lib. V. c. 21.
+
+  133 Bankes, _Civil History of Rome_, Vol. I.
+
+_  134 Brutus_, c. 11.
+
+  135 Livy, Lib. II. c. 40.
+
+  136 The question concerning the authenticity or uncertainty of the Roman
+      history, was long, and still continues to be, a subject of much
+      discussion in France.—“At Paris,” said Lord Bolingbroke, “they have
+      a set of stated paradoxical orations. The business of one of these
+      was to show that the history of Rome, for the four first centuries
+      was a mere fiction. The person engaged in it proved that point so
+      strongly, and so well, that several of the audience, as they were
+      coming out, said, the person who had set that question had played
+      booty, and that it was so far from being a paradox, that it was a
+      plain and evident truth.”—SPENCE’S _Anecdotes_, p. 197. It was
+      chiefly in the _Memoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions_, &c. that
+      this literary controversy was plied. M. de Pouilly, in the Memoirs
+      for the year 1722, produced his proofs and arguments against the
+      authenticity. He was weakly opposed, in the following year, by M.
+      Sallier, and defended by M. Beaufort, in the Memoirs of the Academy,
+      and at greater length in his _Dissert. sur l’Incertitude des cinq
+      premiers siècles de l’Hist. Romaine_, (1738,) which contains a clear
+      and conclusive exposition of the state of the question. The dispute
+      has been lately renewed in the Memoirs of the Institute, in the
+      proceedings of which, for 1815, there is a long paper, by M.
+      Levesque, maintaining the total uncertainty of the Roman history
+      previous to the invasion of the Gauls; while the opposite side of
+      the question has been strenuously espoused by M. Larcher. This
+      controversy, though it commenced in France, has not been confined to
+      that country. Hooke and Gibbon have argued for the certainty,
+      (_Miscell. Works_, Vol. IV. p. 40,) and Cluverius for the
+      uncertainty, of the Roman history, (_Ital. Antiq._ Lib. III. c. 2.)
+      Niebuhr, the late German historian of Rome, considers all before
+      Tullus Hostilius as utterly fabulous. The time that elapsed from his
+      accession to the war with Pyrrhus, he regards as a period to be
+      found in almost every history, between mere fable and authentic
+      record. Beck, in the introduction to his German translation of
+      Ferguson’s Roman Republic, _Ueber die Quellen der altesten Römischen
+      Geschichte und ihren Werth_, has attempted to vindicate the
+      authenticity of the Roman history to a certain extent; but his
+      reasonings and citations go little farther than to prove, what never
+      can be disputed, that there is much truth in the general outline of
+      events—that the kings were expelled—that the Etruscans were finally
+      subdued; and that consuls were created. He admits, that much rested
+      on tradition; but tradition, he maintains, is so much interwoven
+      with every history, that it cannot be safely thrown away. The
+      remainder of the treatise is occupied with a feeble attempt to show,
+      that more monuments existed at Rome after its capture by the Gauls,
+      than is generally supposed, and that Fabius Pictor made a good use
+      of them.
+
+  137 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXXV. c. 4.
+
+  138 Hankius, _De Romanar. Rerum Scriptor._ Pars I. c. 1.
+
+  139 Lib. VII.
+
+  140 Lib. IV. p. 234.
+
+_  141 In Romulo_.
+
+  142 Lib. III. c. 9.
+
+  143 Lib. I.
+
+  144 Lib. III. c. 8.
+
+  145 Ernesti has attempted, but I think unsuccessfully, to support the
+      authenticity of the Annals of Fabius against the censures of
+      Polybius, in his dissertation, entitled, _Pro Fabii Fide adversus
+      Polybium_, inserted in his _Opuscula Philologica_, Leipsic,
+      1746—Lugd. Bat. 1764. He attempts to show, from other passages, that
+      Polybius was a great detractor of preceding historians, and that he
+      judged of events more from what was probable and likely to have
+      occurred, than from what actually happened, and that no historian
+      could have better information than Fabius. To the interrogatories
+      which Polybius puts to Fabius, with regard to the causes assigned by
+      him as the origin of the second Punic war, Ernesti replies for him,
+      that the Senate of Carthage could no more have taken the command
+      from Hannibal in Spain, or delivered him up, than the Roman Senate
+      could have deprived Cæsar of his army, when on the banks of the
+      Rubicon; and as to the support which Hannibal received while in
+      Italy, it is answered, that it was quite consistent with political
+      wisdom, and the practice of other nations, for a government
+      involuntarily forced into a struggle, by the disobedience or evil
+      counsels of its subjects, to use every exertion to obtain ultimate
+      success, or extricate itself with honour, from the difficulties in
+      which it had been reluctantly involved.
+
+  146 Lib. I. p. 64.
+
+  147 Fabium æqualem temporibus hujusce belli potissimum auctorem habui.
+      Lib. XXII. c. 7.
+
+_  148 Brutus_, c. 27.
+
+_  149 Hist. Nat._ Lib. XI. c. 53.
+
+_  150 Noct. Attic._ Lib. XI. c. 14.
+
+  151 He also probably suggested to Sallust a phrase which has given much
+      scandal in so grave a historian. Cicero says, in one of his letters,
+      (_Epist. Famil._ Lib. IX. Ep. 22,) “At vero Piso, in annalibus suis,
+      queritur, adolescentes peni deditos esse.”
+
+_  152 Römische Geschichte_, Tom. I. p. 245.
+      As his account of Roman affairs was written in Greek, I omit in the
+      list of Latin annalists Lucius Cincius Alimentus, who was
+      contemporary with Fabius, having been taken prisoner by Hannibal
+      during the second Punic war. But though his history was in Greek, he
+      wrote in Latin a biographical sketch of the Sicilian Rhetorician
+      Gorgias Leontinus, and also a book, _De Re Militari_, which has been
+      cited by Au. Gellius, and acknowledged by Vegetius as the foundation
+      of his more elaborate Commentaries on the same subject.
+
+_  153 Brutus_, c. 26.
+
+  154 The passage is a fragment from the first book of Sallust’s lost
+      history. Mar. Victorinus _in prim. Ciceronis de Inventione_.
+
+_  155 De Fontibus et Auctoritate Vitarum Parallel. Plutarchi_, p. 134.
+      Gotteng. 1820.
+
+  156 Lib. I. c. 7.
+
+_  157 Brutus_, c. 26.
+
+  158 Lib. I. c. 7.
+
+  159 Æl. Spartianus, _in Hadriano_.
+
+  160 Au. Gellius, _Noct. Attic._ Lib. II. c. 13.
+
+_  161 De Legibus_, Lib. I. c. 2.
+
+  162 Lib. V. c. 18.
+
+_  163 Brutus_, c. 35.
+
+_  164 Noct. Attic._ Lib. IX. c. 13.
+
+_  165 Noct. Attic._ Lib. XIII. c. 28.
+
+  166 Ibid. Lib. VII. c. 19.
+
+_  167 Noct. Attic._ Lib. VI. c. 8.
+
+  168 See above, Vol. I. p. 322.
+
+_  169 Brutus_, c. 63.
+
+  170 Lib. II. c. 9.
+
+_  171 Jugurtha_, c. 95.
+
+_  172 Brutus_, c. 63.
+
+_  173 De Legibus_, Lib. I. c. 2.
+
+_  174 Brutus_, c. 29. Some persons have supposed that Cicero did not here
+      mean Xenophon’s _Cyropædia_, but a life of Cyrus, written by
+      Scaurus. This, indeed, seems at first a more probable meaning than
+      that he should have bestowed a compliment apparently so extravagant
+      on the Memoirs of Scaurus; but his words do not admit of this
+      interpretation.—“Præclaram illam quidem, sed neque tam rebus nostris
+      aptam, nec tamen Scauri laudibus anteponendam.”
+
+  175 Lib. VII.
+
+_  176 In Mario_.
+
+  177 Lib. II. c. 13.
+
+  178 Lib. II. c. 5. Lib. VI. c. 4.
+
+  179 Plutarch, _in Lucullo_.
+
+  180 Plutarch, _In Sylla_.—Appian.
+
+_  181 In Mario_.
+
+_  182 Memoirs of the Court of Augustus_, Vol. I.
+
+_  183 In Vespasiano_, c. 8.
+
+  184 Malheureux sort de l’histoire! Les spectateurs sont trop peu
+      instruits, et les acteurs trop interessés pour que nous puissions
+      compter sur les recits des uns ou des autres.—GIBBON’S _Miscell.
+      Works_, Vol. IV.
+
+_  185 Noct. Att._ Lib. XVII. c. 18.
+
+  186 Nardini, _Roma Antica_. Lib. IV. c. 7.
+
+  187 Steuart’s _Sallust_, Essay I.
+
+_  188 Classical Tour_, Vol. II. c. 6.
+
+_  189 Sat._ Lib. I. Sat. 2.
+
+  190 Suetonius, _De Grammaticis_.
+
+_  191 Leben des Sallust_.
+
+  192 Bankes, _Civil Hist. of Rome_, Vol. II.
+
+  193 The authors of the Universal History suppose that these books were
+      Phœnician and Punic volumes, carried off from Carthage by Scipio,
+      after its destruction, and presented by him to Micipsa; and they
+      give a curious account of these books, of which some memory still
+      subsists, and which they conjecture to have formed part of the royal
+      collection of Numidia.
+
+  194 Senec. _Epist._ 114.
+
+  195 It is curious into what gross blunders the most learned and accurate
+      writers occasionally fall. Fabricius, speaking of these letters,
+      says, “Duæ orationes (sive epistolæ potius) de Rep. ordinandâ ad
+      Cæsarem missæ, cum in Hispanias proficisceretur contra Petreium et
+      Afranium, _victo Cn. Pompeio_.”—_Bibliothec. Latin._ Lib. I. c. 9.
+
+_  196 Lectiones Subsecivæ_, Lib. I. c. 3. Lib. II. c. 2.
+
+  197 Asinius Pollio, however, as we learn from Suetonius, thought that
+      the Commentaries were drawn up with little care or accuracy, that
+      the author was very credulous as to the actions of others, and that
+      he had very hastily written down what regarded himself, with the
+      intention, which he never accomplished, of afterwards revising and
+      correcting.—Sueton. _in Cæsar._ c. 56.
+
+  198 Bankes, _Civil Hist. of Rome_, Vol. II.
+
+  199 Neque Druides habent, qui rebus divinis præsint; neque sacrificiis
+      student. Deorum numero eos solos ducunt, quos cernunt, et quorum
+      opibus aperte juvantur—Solem, et Vulcanum, et Lunam: reliquos ne
+      famâ quidem acceperunt. Lib. VI. c. 21.
+
+  200 Deorum maximè Mercurium colunt, cui, certis diebus, humanis quoque
+      hostiis, litare fas habent. Herculem ac Martem concessis animalibus
+      placant ... Lucos ac nemora consecrant, deorumque nominibus
+      appellant Secretum illud, quod solâ reverentia vident. _De Mor.
+      Germ._ c. 9.
+
+_  201 Germ. Antiqua_, Lib. I. c. 3.
+
+_  202 Brutus_, c. 72.
+
+  203 See Plutarch _In Cæsare_, where it is related that Cæsar wrote
+      verses and speeches, and read them to the pirates by whom he was
+      taken prisoner, on his return to Rome from Bithynia, where he had
+      sought refuge from the power of Sylla.
+
+_  204 Hist. Critic. Ling. Lat._ p. 537.
+
+_  205 Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. XII. ep. 40.
+
+  206 Middleton’s _Life of Cicero_, Vol. II, p. 347, 2d ed.
+
+_  207 Hist. Nat._ Lib. XVIII. c. 26.
+
+  208 Sueton. _In Cæsar._ c. 56.
+
+  209 Cicero, _Brutus_ c. 72.
+
+  210 Au. Gellius, _Noct. Attic._ Lib. I. c. 10.
+
+  211 Charisius, Lib. I.
+
+  212 Au. Gellius, Lib VII, c. 9.
+
+  213 Sueton. _In Cæsar._ c. 56.
+
+  214 Ibid.
+
+  215 See above, Vol. I. p. 204.
+
+  216 See also Blondellus, _Hist. du Calendrier Romain_. Paris, 1682, 4to;
+      Bianchinus, _Dissert. de Calendario et Cyclo Cæsaris_, Rom. 1703,
+      folio; and Court de Gebelin, _Monde Primit._ T. IV.
+
+  217 Mihi non illud quidem accidit, ut Alexandrino atque Africano bello
+      interessem; quæ bella tamen ex parte nobis Cæsaris sermone sunt
+      nota. _De Bell. Gall._ Lib. VIII.
+
+  218 Imperfecta ab rebus gestis Alexandriæ confeci, usque ad exitum, non
+      quidem civilis dissensionis, cujus finem nullum videmus, sed vitæ
+      Cæsaris. _De Bell. Gall._
+
+_  219 De Hist. Lat._ Lib. I. c. 13.
+
+  220 Sueton. _In Cæsar._ c. 72.
+
+_  221 Epist. Famil._ Lib. V. Ep. 12.
+
+  222 Lib. IV. Ep. 6.
+
+_  223 De Ling. Lat._ Lib. IV.
+
+_  224 Hist. Nat._ Lib. VIII. c. 2.
+
+_  225 Epist. Famil._ Lib. VI. Ep. 7.
+
+  226 “Duæ sunt artes,” says Cicero, “quæ possunt locare homines in
+      amplissimo gradu dignitatis: una imperatoris, altera oratoris boni:
+      Ab hoc enim pacis ornamenta retinentur; ab illo belli pericula
+      repelluntur.” _Orat. pro Muræna_, c. 14.
+
+  227 Ratio ipsa in hanc sententiam ducit, ut existimem sapientiam sine
+      eloquentia parum prodesse civitatibus. _Rhetoricorum_, Lib. I. c. 1.
+
+  228 Lib. II.
+
+_  229 Brutus_, c. 22.
+
+_  230 De Orat._ Lib. I. c. 60.
+
+_  231 Rhetoric. seu De Inventione_, Lib. I. c. 1.
+
+  232 Plutarch, _In Tiber. Graccho_.
+
+  233 Plutarch, _In Tiber. Graccho_.
+
+_  234 Noct. Attic._ Lib. X. c. 3.
+
+  235 Plutarch, _In Tib. Graccho_.
+
+_  236 De Orator._ Lib. III. c. 60. Plutarch and Cicero’s accounts of the
+      eloquence of C. Gracchus, seem not quite consistent with what is
+      delivered on the subject by Gellius.
+
+  237 Funccius, _De Virili Ætate Lat. Ling._ c. 1. § 24.
+
+  238 Lib. IV. Od. 1.
+
+  239 Cicero, _De Oratore_, Lib. II. c. 2.
+
+  240 Valer. Maxim. Lib. VII. c. 3.
+
+  241 Valer. Maxim. Lib. III. c. 7; and Lib. VI. c. 8.
+
+_  242 De Oratore_, Lib. II. c. 28, 29, 48, 49.
+
+_  243 Id._ Lib. II. c. 47.
+
+  244 Plutarch _In Mario_. Valerius Maximus, Lib. VIII. c. 9.
+
+  245 Cicero, _De Oratore_, Lib. III. c. 3.
+
+_  246 Id._ Lib. I. c. 33.
+
+  247 Cicero, _De Orat._. Lib. I. c. 26, 27.
+
+  248 Cicero, _De Orat._ Lib. II. c. 1.
+
+  249 Plutarch, _In Sylla_.
+
+_  250 De Oratore_, Lib. III. c. 3.
+
+  251 Plutarch, _In Sylla_.
+
+_  252 De Oratore_, Lib. III. c. 3.
+
+_  253 Brutus_, c. 89.
+
+_  254 Brutus_, c. 63.
+
+  255 Ibid.
+
+_  256 De Oratore_, Lib. III. c. 61.
+
+  257 Cicero, _Brutus_, c. 89.
+
+  258 Ibid.
+
+  259 Ibid.
+
+  260 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XVII. c. 1.
+
+  261 Ibid. Lib. XXXIII. c. 11.
+
+  262 Nardini, _Roma Antica_, Lib. VI. c. 15.
+
+  263 Sueton. _in Augusto_, c. 72.
+
+  264 Varro, _De Re Rustica_, Lib. III. c. 6.
+
+  265 Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, Lib. III. c. 13.
+
+  266 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XIV. c. 14.
+
+  267 Ibid. Lib. XXV. c. 11.
+
+  268 Varro, _De Re Rustica_, Lib. III. c. 3.
+
+  269 Ibid. Lib. III. c. 17.
+
+  270 Ibid.
+
+  271 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. IX. c. 55.
+
+  272 Cicer. _Academica_, Lib. II. c. 25, 31, 33.
+
+  273 Bonstetten, _Voyage dans le Latium_, p. 152–160. Nibby, _Viaggio
+      Antiquario ne contorni di Roma_, T. II.
+
+  274 Varro, _De Re Rustica_, Lib. III. c. 13.
+
+  275 Cicero, _Brutus_, c. 95.
+
+  276 Varro, _De Re Rustica_. Cicero, _Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. V. Ep. 2.
+
+  277 Seren. Samonicus, _De Medicina_, c. 15.
+
+  278 Cicero, _Epist. Familiares_, Lib. VIII. Ep. 2.
+
+_  279 Dio__ Cassius_, Lib. XXXIX.
+
+  280 Quint. _Inst. Orat._ Lib. XI. c. 3.
+
+_  281 Epist. ad Atticum_, Lib. III. Ep. 9, &c.
+
+  282 As a proof of his astonishing memory, it is recorded by Seneca,
+      that, for a trial of his powers of recollection, he remained a whole
+      day at a public auction, and when it was concluded, he repeated in
+      order what had been sold, to whom, and at what price. His recital
+      was compared with the clerk’s account, and his memory was found to
+      have served him faithfully in every particular. Senec. _Præf._ Lib.
+      I. _Controv._
+
+  283 Aulus Gellius, _Noct. Attic._ Lib. I. c. 5.
+
+  284 Valerius Maximus, Lib. VIII. c. 10.
+
+  285 Ibid.
+
+  286 Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, Lib. III. c. 13.
+
+  287 Ibid.
+
+  288 Meiners, _Decadence des Mœurs chez les Romains_.
+
+  289 Hortensius was first married to a daughter of Q. Catulus, the
+      orator, who is one of the speakers in the Dialogue _De Oratore_.
+      (Cicero, _De Oratore_, Lib. III. c. 61.) He afterwards asked, and
+      obtained from Cato, his wife Marcia; who, having succeeded to a
+      great part of the wealth of Hortensius on his death, was then taken
+      back by her former husband. (Plutarch, _In Catone_.) By his first
+      wife, Hortensius had a son and daughter. In his son Quintus, he was
+      not more fortunate than his rival, Cicero, in his son Marcus.
+      Cicero, while Proconsul of Cilicia, mentions, in one of his letters,
+      the ruffian and scandalous appearance made by the younger Hortensius
+      at Laodicea, during the shows of gladiators.—“I invited him once to
+      supper,” says he, “on his father’s account; and, on the same
+      account, only once.” (_Epist. Ad Attic._ Lib. VI. Ep. 3.) Such,
+      indeed, was his unworthy conduct, that his father at this time
+      entertained thoughts of disinheriting him, and making his nephew,
+      Messala, his heir; but in this intention he did not persevere.
+      (Valer. Maxim. Lib. V. c. 9.) After his father’s death, he joined
+      the party of Cæsar, (Cicero, _Epist. Ad Att._ Lib. X. Ep. 16, 17,
+      18,) by whom he was appointed Proconsul of Macedonia; in which
+      situation he espoused the side of the conspirators, subsequently to
+      the assassination of Cæsar. (Cicero, _Philip._ X. c. 5 and 6.) By
+      order of Brutus, he slew Caius Antonius, brother to the Triumvir,
+      who had fallen into his hands; and, being afterwards taken prisoner
+      at the battle of Philippi, he was slain by Marc Antony, by way of
+      reprisal, on the tomb of his brother. (Plutarch, _In M. Bruto_.)
+      Hortensia, the daughter, inherited something of the spirit and
+      eloquence of her father. A severe tribute having been imposed on the
+      Roman matrons by the Triumvirs, Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, she
+      boldly pleaded their cause before these noted extortioners, and
+      obtained some alleviation of the impost. (Valer. Maxim. Lib. VIII.
+      c. 3.)
+      Quintus, the son of the orator, left two children, Q. Hortensius
+      Corbio, and M. Hortensius Hortalus. The former of these was a
+      monster of debauchery; and is mentioned by his contemporary,
+      Valerius Maximus, among the most striking examples of those
+      descendants who have degenerated from the honour of their ancestors.
+      (Lib. III. c. 5.) This wretch, not being likely to become a father,
+      and the wealth of the family having been partly settled on the wife
+      of Cato, partly dissipated by extravagance, and partly confiscated
+      in the civil wars, Augustus Cæsar, who was a great promoter of
+      matrimony, gave Hortensius Hortalus a pecuniary allowance to enable
+      him to marry, in order that so illustrious a family might not become
+      extinct. He and his children, however, fell into want during the
+      reign of his benefactor’s successor. Tacitus has painted, with his
+      usual power of striking delineation, that humiliating scene, in
+      which he appeared, with his four children, to beg relief from the
+      Senate; and the historian has also recorded the hard answer which he
+      received from the unrelenting Tiberius. Perceiving, however, that
+      his severity was disliked by the Senate, the Emperor said, that, if
+      they desired it, he would give a certain sum to each of Hortalus’s
+      male children. They returned thanks; but Hortalus, either from
+      terror or dignity of mind, said not a word; and, from this time,
+      Tiberius showing him no favour, his family sunk into the most abject
+      poverty: (Tacit. _Annal._ Lib. II. c. 37 and 38.) And such were the
+      descendants of the orator with the park, the plantations, the ponds,
+      and the pictures!
+
+  290 Catull. _Carm._ 53.
+
+  291 Pliny, _Epist._ Lib. I. ep. 2.
+
+_  292 Brutus_, c. 80.
+
+  293 Ibid.
+
+  294 According to some authorities it was a short while before, and
+      according to others a short while after, the expulsion of Tarquin.
+
+  295 “Exactis deinde regibus leges hæ exoleverunt; iterumque cœpit
+      populus Romanus incerto magis jure et consuetudine ali, quam per
+      latam legem.”—POMPON. LÆTUS, _De Leg._ II. § 3.
+
+  296 Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, c. 44.
+
+_  297 De Legibus_, Lib. II. c. 23. _De Oratore_, Lib. I, c. 42.
+
+  298 “Decem tabularum leges,” says Livy, “nunc quoque, in hoc immenso
+      aliarum super aliis acervatarum legum cumulo, fons omnis publici
+      privatique est juris.”
+
+  299 Cicero, _De Oratore_, Lib. II. c. 33.
+
+  300 Saint Prix, _Hist. du Droit Romain_, p. 23. Ed. Paris, 1821.
+
+_  301 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, c. 44.
+
+  302 Cicero, _De Orat._ Lib. I. c. 57.
+
+  303 Ibid. Lib. I. c. 58.
+
+  304 It must be admitted, however, that Cicero, in other passages of his
+      works, has given the study of civil law high encomiums, particularly
+      in the following beautiful passage delivered in the person of
+      Crassus: “Senectuti vero celebrandæ et ornandæ quid honestius potest
+      esse perfugium, quàm juris interpretatio? Equidem mihi hoc subsidium
+      jam inde ab adolescentiâ comparavi, non solum ad causarum usum
+      forensem, sed etiam ad decus atque ornamentum senectutis; ut cùm me
+      vires (quod fere jam tempus adventat) deficere cœpissent, ab
+      solitudine domum meam vindicarem.” (_De Oratore_, Lib. I. c. 45.)
+      Schultingius, the celebrated civilian, in his dissertation _De
+      Jurisprudentia Ciceronis_, tries to prove, from various passages in
+      his orations and rhetorical writings, that Cicero was well versed in
+      the most profound and nice questions of Roman jurisprudence, and
+      that he was well skilled in international law, as Grotius has
+      borrowed from him many of his principles and illustrations, in his
+      treatise _De Jure Belli et Pacis_.
+
+_  305 De Oratore_, Lib. I.
+
+_  306 Ibid._ Lib. II. c. 49.
+
+  307 “An non pudeat, certam creditam pecuniam periodis postulare, aut
+      circa stillicidia affici?”—Quint. _Inst. Orat._ Lib. VIII. c. 3.
+
+  308 Polletus, _Historia Fori Romani, ap. Supplement. ad Graevii et
+      Gronov. antiquitat._ T. I. p. 351.
+
+_  309 In Verrem_, Act. I. c. 14.
+
+  310 Nardini, _Roma Antica_, Lib. V. c. 2, &c.
+
+  311 Virg. _Æneid._ Lib. VII.
+
+  312 “Parvis de rebus,” says he, “sed fortasse necessariis consulimur,
+      Patres conscripti. De Appiâ viâ et de monetâ Consul—De Lupercis
+      tribunus plebis refert. Quarum rerum etsi facilis explicatio
+      videtur, tamen animus aberrat a sententiâ, suspensus curis
+      majoribus.”—C. I.
+
+_  313 Orator_, c. 30.
+
+_  314 Orator_, c. 30. spe et expectatione laudati.
+
+_  315 De Officiis_, Lib. II. c. 14.
+
+_  316 Brutus_, c. 91.
+
+  317 Cæcilius was _a Jew_, who had been domiciled in Sicily; whence
+      Cicero, playing on the name of Verres, asks, “Quid Judæo cum
+      _Verre_?” (a boar.)
+
+  318 He ultimately, however, met with a well-merited and appropriate
+      fate. Having refused to give up his Corinthian vases to Marc Antony,
+      he was proscribed for their sake, and put to death by the rapacious
+      Triumvir.
+
+  319 Livy, Lib. XXV. c. 40.
+
+  320 Gillies, _History of Greece_, Part II. T. IV. c. 27.
+
+_  321 Lectures on Rhetoric_, &c. Vol. II. Lect. XXVIII.
+
+  322 Lib. II. Ep. 1.
+
+  323 Wolf, in the preface to his edition of the Oration for Marcellus,
+      mentions having seen a scholastic declamation, entitled, _Oratio
+      Catilinæ, in M. Ciceronem_. It concludes thus,—“Me consularem
+      patricium, civem et amicum reipublicæ a faucibus inimici consulis
+      eripite; supplicem atque insontem pristinæ claritudini, omnium
+      civium gratiæ, et benevolentiæ vestræ restitute. _Amen._”
+
+  324 Funccius, _De Viril. Ætat. Ling. Lat._ Pars II. c. 2.
+
+  325 Aonius Palearius wrote a declamation in answer to this speech,
+      entitled, _Contra Murænam_.
+
+_  326 Origin and Progress of Language_, Book IV.
+
+_  327 Correspondence_, p. 85.
+
+  328 Jenisch, _Parallel der beiden grösten Redner des Althertum_, p. 124,
+      ed. Berlin, 1821.
+
+  329 Plutarch, _In Cicero._
+
+_  330 Philip._ VI. c. 1.
+
+  331 Juvenal, _Satir._ X. v. 118.
+
+  332 Quintil. _Inst. Orat._ Lib. V.
+
+_  333 Orator_, c. 67, 70.
+
+_  334 Hist. Nat._ Lib. VII. c. 30.
+
+  335 Plutarch, _In Cicer._
+
+  336 Macrobius, _Saturnal._ Lib. III. c. 14.
+
+_  337 Noct. Attic._ Lib. I. c. 7.
+
+_  338 Dio Cassius_, XXXIX. c. 9.
+
+_  339 Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. IV. Ep. 1.
+
+_  340 Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. IV. Ep. 2.
+
+  341 See Nichol’s _Literary Anecdotes_. Harles, also, seems to suppose
+      that Bishop Ross was in earnest:—“Orationem pro Sulla spuriam esse
+      audacter pronunciavit vir quidam doctus in—A Dissertation, in which
+      the defence of P. Sulla, &c. is proved to be spurious.”—HARLES,
+      _Introduct. in Notitiam Literat. Rom._ Tom. II. p. 153.
+
+_  342 Bib. Lat._ Lib. I. c. 8.
+
+  343 Lib. IV. Ep. 2.
+
+  344 “Cum Appendice De Oratione, quæ vulgo fertur, M. T. Ciceronis pro Q.
+      Ligario,” in which the author attempts to abjudicate from Cicero the
+      beautiful oration for Ligarius, which shook even the soul of Cæsar,
+      while he has translated into his own language the two wretched
+      orations, _Post Reditum_, and _Ad Quirites_, insisting on the
+      legitimacy of both, and enlarging on their truly classical beauties!
+      In his Preface, he has pleasantly enough parodied the arguments of
+      Wolf against the oration for Marcellus, ironically showing that they
+      came not from that great scholar, but from a _pseudo_ Wolf, who had
+      assumed his name.
+
+_  345 Paral. der Beyden Grösten Redner des Altherthums_.
+
+_  346 Brutus_, c. 12, &c.
+
+_  347 Epist. Famil._ Lib. I. Ep. 9.
+
+_  348 Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. XII. Ep. 5, &c.
+
+_  349 Epist. Famil._ Lib. VI. Ep. 18.
+
+_  350 Ibid._ Lib. VII. Ep. 19.
+
+_  351 Inst. Orat._ Lib. XII. c. 10.
+
+_  352 Brutus_, c. 91. Is dedit operam (si modo id consequi potuit) ut
+      nimis redundantes nos juvenili quâdam dicendi impunitate et licentiâ
+      reprimeret; et quasi extra ripas diffluentes coerceret.
+
+_  353 Observat. Critic. in Sophoc. et Ciceron._ Lips. 1802.
+
+  354 Fuhrmann, _Handbuch der Classisch. Literat._
+
+_  355 De Nat. et Const. Rhetor._ c. 13.
+
+_  356 Dissert. Utrum ars Rhetorica ad Herennium Ciceroni falsò
+      inscribitur_.
+
+_  357 De Re Poet._ Lib. III. c. 31. and 34.
+
+  358 See P. Burmanni Secund. _In __Præf.__ ad Rhetoric. ad Herennium._
+      Also Fabricius, _Bib. Lat._ Lib. I. c. 8.
+
+_  359 Paradise Regained_.
+
+_  360 De Orat._ Lib. I. c. 10. Ab illo fonte et capite Socrate.
+
+_  361 Academ._ Lib. II. c. 5.
+
+_  362 De Natur. Deor._ Lib. I. c. 43.
+
+  363 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXXV. c. 11.
+
+_  364 Mem. de l’Instit. Royale_, Tom. XXX.
+
+  365 Cicero styles him Princeps Stoicorum, (_De Divin._ Lib. II. c. 47,)
+      and eruditissimum hominem, et pæne divinum (_Pro Muræna_, c. 31.)
+
+  366 Censuerunt ut M. Pomponius Prætor animadverteret uti e republicâ
+      fideque suâ videretur Romæ ne essent. (Au. Gellius, _Noct. Attic._
+      Lib. XV. c. 11.)
+
+  367 Ælian, _Histor. Var._ Lib. III. c. 17.
+
+  368 Plutarch, _In Catone_.
+
+  369 Au. Gellius, _Noct. Attic._ Lib. VII. c. 14.
+
+_  370 De Oratore_, Lib. III. c. 18.
+
+_  371 Ibid._ Lib. II. c. 38.
+
+  372 Hæc in philosophiâ ratio contra omnia disserendi, nullamque rem
+      aperte judicandi, profecta a Socrate, repetita ab Arcesilao,
+      confirmata a Carneade, usque ad nostram viguit ætatem. _De Nat.
+      Deor._ Lib. I. c. 5.
+
+_  373 Academ. Prior._ Lib. II. c. 48.
+
+  374 Valer. Max. Lib. VIII. c. 7.
+
+_  375 Academ. Prior._ Lib. II. c. 31.
+
+  376 Quintil. _Inst. Orat._ Lib. XII. c. 1. Lactant. _Instit._ Lib. V. c.
+      14.
+
+  377 Plutarch, _In Catone_. Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. VII. c. 30.
+
+_  378 Divin. Institut._ Lib. V. c. 16.
+
+  379 Plutarch, _De Fortitud. Alexandri_.
+
+  380 Diog. Laert. _In Clitomacho_.
+
+  381 Cicero, _Academic. Prior._ Lib. II. c. 32.
+
+_  382 Academic. Prior._ Lib. II. c. 32.
+
+  383 Mater, _Ecole d’Alexandrie_, Tom. II. p. 131.
+
+  384 Dans la Grèce, aprés ces épreuves, commençoit enfin la vie champêtre
+      dans les jardins du Lycée ou de l’Academie, où l’on entreprenoit un
+      cours de philosophie, que les véritables amateurs avoient l’art
+      singulier de ne jamais finir. Ils restoient toute leur vie attachés
+      à quelque chef de secte comme Metrodore à Epicure, moudroient dans
+      les écoles, et étoient ensuite enterrés à l’ombre de ces mêmes
+      arbustes, sous lesquels ils avoient tant médité. (De Pauw,
+      _Recherches Philosophiques sur les Grecs_, T. II.)
+
+  385 Cicero, _Academ. Prior._ Lib. II. c. 4.
+
+_  386 Epist. Familiares_.
+
+  387 Garve, _Anmerk. zu Büchern von den Pflichten_. Breslau, 1819.
+      Schoell, _Hist. Abregée de la Litterat. Romaine_.
+
+  388 P. XII.
+
+_  389 Ciceron. Opera_, Tom. XIII. p. 15.
+
+_  390 Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. XII. Ep. 52.
+
+_  391 Epist._ Lib. XIII. Ep. 21.
+
+_  392 Dialog. Hipparchus_.
+
+  393 Black’s _Life of Tasso_, Vol. II.
+
+  394 Hulsemann, _Uber die Principien und den Geist der Gesetze_. Leipsic,
+      1802.
+
+  395 Quæque de optimâ republicâ sentiremus, in sex libris ante diximus;
+      accommodabimus hoc tempore leges ad illum, quem probamus civitatûs
+      statum. _De Legib._ Lib. III. c. 2.
+
+_  396 Epist. ad Quint. Frat._ Lib. II. Ep. 14. Lib. III. Ep. 5 and 6.
+
+_  397 De Legib._ Lib. II. c. 17.
+
+_  398 Ibid._ Lib. I. c. 20.
+
+  399 Hominis Amicissimi, Cn. Pompeii, laudes illustrabit. Lib. I. c. 3.
+
+_  400 De Legibus_, Lib. II. c. 1.
+
+_  401 Ibid._ Lib. I. c. 5.
+
+_  402 Excursion from Rome to Arpino_, p. 89. Ed. Geneva, 1820.
+
+  403 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXXI. c. 2.
+
+  404 “Cæruleus nos Liris amat.”—_Martial_, Lib. XIII. Ep. 83. See also
+      Lucan, Lib. II.
+
+_  405 De Legibus_, Lib. II. c. 2.
+
+  406 Kelsall, _Excursion_, p. 116.
+
+_  407 De Legibus_, Lib. II. c. 1.
+
+_  408 Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. XII. Ep. 12.
+
+_  409 Classic Tour through Italy_, by Sir R. C. Hoare, Vol. I. p. 293.
+
+_  410 Classical Tour_, Vol. II. c. 9.
+
+_  411 Classical Excursion from Rome to Arpino_, p. 99. Cicero always
+      considered the citizens of Arpinum as under his particular
+      protection and patronage; and it is pleasant to find, that its
+      modern inhabitants still testify, in various ways, due veneration
+      for their illustrious townsman. Their theatre is called the _Teatro
+      Tulliano_, of which the drop-scene is painted with a bust of the
+      orator; and even now, workmen are employed in building a new
+      town-hall, with niches, destined to receive statues of Marius and
+      Cicero.
+
+  412 Macrob. _Saturnal._ Lib. VI. c. 4.
+
+_  413 Saturnal._ Lib. VI. c. 4.
+
+_  414 Diogenes Laertius_, Lib. VII.
+
+_  415 Diog. Laert._ Lib. VII.
+
+  416 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXXI. c. 3.
+
+_  417 Academ. Prior._ Lib. II. c. 33.
+
+_  418 Epist. Famil._ Lib. IX. Ep. 8.
+
+  419 Et ut nos nunc sedemus ad Lucrinum, pisciculosque exsultantes
+      videmus. _De propriet. Serm._ c. 1. 335. voc. _exsultare_.
+
+_  420 Epist. Dedicat. ad Prælect. in Cic. Acad._
+
+_  421 Introduct. in Academic._ Ed. Lips. 1810.
+
+  422 Nec esse, nec dici posse novum opus, ac penitus mutatum; sed
+      tantummodo correctum, magis politum, et quoad formam et dictionem,
+      hîc et illic, splendidius mutatum. _De Lib. Cic. Academ. Comment._
+
+_  423 Classical Tour_, Vol. II. c. 8.
+
+_  424 Rome in the Nineteenth Century_, Vol. III. Let. 93.
+
+_  425 De Finibus_, Lib. III. and IV. Kelsall, _Excursion from Rome to
+      Arpino_, p. 193.
+
+_  426 Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. I. Ep. 1.
+
+  427 Middleton’s _Life of Cicero_, Vol. I. p. 142.
+
+  428 Blainville’s _Travels_, Vol. II.
+
+  429 Eustace, _Classical Tour_, Vol. II. c. 8. Grotta Ferrata was long
+      considered both by travellers (Addison, _Letters on Italy_,
+      Blainville, _Travels_, &c.) and antiquarians (Calmet, _Hist.
+      Univers._ Cluverius, _Italic. Antiq._) as the site of Cicero’s
+      Tusculan villa. The opinion thus generally received, was first
+      deliberately called in question by Zuzzeri, in a dissertation
+      published in 1746, entitled _Sopra un’ antica Villa scoperta sopra
+      Frescati nell appartenenze della nuova villa dell collegio Romano_.
+      This writer places the site close to the villa and convent of
+      Ruffinella, which is higher up the hill than Grotta Ferrata, lying
+      between Frescati and the town of Tusculum. He was answered by
+      Cardoni, a monk of the Basilian order of Grotta Ferrata, in his
+      _Disceptatio Apologetica de Tusculano Ciceronis_, Romæ, 1757.
+      Cardoni chiefly rests his argument on a passage of Strabo, where
+      that geographer says, that the _Tusculan hill_ is fertile, well
+      watered, and surrounded with beautiful villas. Now Cardoni,
+      referring this passage (which applies to the Tusculan hill in
+      general) solely to the Tusculan villa, argues somewhat unfairly,
+      that Strabo’s description answers to Grotta Ferrata, but not to
+      Ruffinella. (p. 8, &c.) Nibby in his _Viaggio Antiquario_, supports
+      the claims of Ruffinella, on the authority of a passage in
+      Frontinus, which he interprets with no greater candour or success.
+      (T. II. p. 41.) With exception of Eustace, however, all modern
+      travellers, whose works I have consulted, declare in favour of
+      Ruffinella. “At the convent of Ruffinella, says Forsyth, farther up
+      the hill than Grotta Ferrata, his (Cicero’s) name was found stamped
+      on some ancient tiles, which should ascertain the situation of a
+      villa in preference to any moveable.”—_Remarks on Italy_, p. 281.
+      See also _Rome in the Nineteenth Century_, Vol. III. Letter 92, and
+      Kelsall’s _Classical Excursion_, p. 192.
+
+  430 Alex. ab Alexandro, _Dies Geniales_, Lib. I. c. 23. Rossmini, _Vita
+      di Filelfo_, T. III. p. 59. Ed. Milan, 1808, 3 Tom. 8vo.
+
+_  431 Tusc. Disp._ Lib. II. c. 3. Lib. III. c. 3.
+
+  432 Juvenal, I think, had probably this passage of the Tusculan
+      Disputations in view, in the noble and pathetic lines of his tenth
+      Satire—
+
+        “Provida Pompeio dederat Campania febres,” &c.
+
+  433 Some of the advantages and disadvantages of the method of writing in
+      dialogue, are stated by Mr. Hume, in the introduction to his
+      _Dialogues concerning Natural Religion_, (London, 1779, 8vo,) a work
+      apparently modelled on Cicero’s Nature of the Gods.
+
+  434 In the English extracts from Cicero _De Nat. Deor._ I have availed
+      myself of a very good but anonymous translation, printed Lond. 1741,
+      8vo.
+
+  435 In the Herculanensia, (p. 22,) Sir William Drummond contends, at
+      considerable length, that a work _On Piety according to Epicurus_,
+      (Περι Ευσεβεῖας κατ’ Επικουρον,) of which a fragment has been
+      discovered at Herculaneum, was the prototype of a considerable part
+      of the discourse of Velleius. The reader will find a version of the
+      passages in which a resemblance appears, in the Quarterly Review,
+      (No. V.) where it is also remarked, “that Sir William seems to us to
+      have failed altogether in rendering it probable that Cicero had ever
+      seen this important fragment, the passages in which there is any
+      resemblance, relating, without exception, to what each author is
+      reporting of the doctrines of certain older philosophers, as
+      expressed in their works; and the reports are not by any means so
+      precisely similar as to induce us to suppose that Cicero had even
+      taken the very justifiable liberty of saving himself some little
+      trouble, by making use of another author’s abstract, from
+      Chrysippus, and from Diogenes the Babylonian.” Schütz, the German
+      editor of Cicero, enumerates some works, which he thinks Cicero had
+      read, and others, which he seems to have known merely from summaries
+      and abridgments. The following is his conjecture with regard to the
+      writings of Epicurus:—“Epicuri denique κυριας δοξας, ejus κανονα seu
+      libros, de Judicio, item περι φυσεως et περι ὁσιοτητος, non ex
+      aliorum tantum testimoniis, sed ex suâ ipsius lectione ei notos
+      fuisse, facile, tot locis ubi de eo agitur inter se collatis,
+      intelligitur.” (Cicer. _Opera_, Tom. XV. p. 27.) Perhaps the
+      treatise, περι Ὁσιοτητος, was a similar work to that, Περι
+      Ευσεβεῖας.
+
+  436 In his Dialogues on Natural Religion, Mr. Hume puts two very good
+      remarks into the mouth of one of his characters. Speaking of
+      Cicero’s argument for a Deity, deduced from the grandeur and
+      magnificence of nature, he observes, “If this argument, I say, had
+      any force in former ages, how much greater must it have at present,
+      when the bounds of nature are so infinitely enlarged, and such a
+      magnificent scene is opened to us!” P. 103.—Again, in mentioning
+      that the infidelity of Galen was cured by the study of anatomy,
+      (which was much more extended by him than it had been in the days of
+      Cicero,) he says, “And if the infidelity of Galen, even when these
+      natural sciences were still imperfect, could not withstand such
+      striking appearances, to what pitch of pertinacious obstinacy must a
+      philosopher in this age have attained, who can now doubt of a
+      Supreme Intelligence!” P. 23.—See also Lactantius, _De Opificio
+      Dei_.
+
+  437 There was published, _Bononiæ_, 1811, _M. T. Ciceronis de Naturâ
+      Deorum Liber Quartus: e pervetusto Codice MS. Membranaceo nunc
+      primum edidit P. Seraphinus Ord. Fr. Min._—This tract was
+      republished, (Oxonii, 1813,) by Mr. Lunn, who says in a prefatory
+      note, that “he entertains no doubt, from the opinion of several of
+      his friends, of this production being a literary forgery.” Of this,
+      indeed, there can be no doubt, as appears among various other
+      proofs, from the minute account of the Jews.—“Sed etiam plures
+      adhibere deos vel divos, a quibus ipsi regantur, quos nomine Elohim
+      designare soleant, secundi ordinis,” &c. (p. 12.)—There is some
+      humour in the manner in which the Italian editor, in a preface
+      written in the rude style of a simple friar, obtests that the work
+      is not a forgery.—“Sed ne quis existimet, me ipsum fecisse hunc
+      librum, testor, detestor, obtestor, et contestor, per S. Franciscum
+      Assissium, me talem facere non posse, qui sacris incumbere cogor,
+      nec profanis possum,” &c.
+
+  438 C. 29.
+
+  439 C. 7.
+
+  440 Multis etiam sensi mirabile videri, eam nobis potissimum probatam
+      esse philosophiam, quæ lucem eriperet, et quasi noctem quandam rebus
+      offunderet, desertæque disciplinæ et jampridem relictæ patrocinium
+      nec opinatum a nobis esse susceptum.—(_De Nat. Deor._ Lib. I. c. 3.)
+
+  441 Warburton, _Divine Legation_, Vol. II. p. 168. Ed. 1755. Warburton
+      here alludes to Bentley—_Remarks on a late Discourse of
+      Free-thinking_, Part II. Rem. 53.
+
+_  442 Bolingbroke’s Works_, Vol. VIII. p. 81. ed. 8vo.
+
+  443 Ibid. p. 266, 278.
+
+  444 Fuerint qui judicarent oportere statui per Senatum ut aboleantur hæc
+      scripta, quibus religio Christiana comprobetur, et vetustatis
+      opprimatur auctoritas.—Arnobius, _Adversus Gentes_, Lib. III.
+
+  445 In the preface to the second book of this treatise, _De
+      Divinatione_, Cicero, enumerating his late philosophical
+      compositions, says, “Quibus libris editis, tres libri perfecti sunt
+      _De Naturâ Deorum_ * * quæ ut plene essent cumulateque perfecta, _De
+      Divinatione_ ingressi sumus his libris scribere.”—(_De Div._ Lib.
+      II. c. 1.)
+
+  446 Hoc sum contentus; quod, etiamsi, quomodo quidque fiat, ignorem,
+      quid fiat, intelligo.
+
+  447 C. 38.
+
+  448 C. 3.
+
+  449 Cowley.
+
+  450 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. XXXI. c. 2.
+
+  451 At least so says Middleton, (Vol. III. p. 297,) and he quotes as his
+      authority Spartian’s Life of Hadrian, (c. 25.) Spartian, however,
+      only tells, that he was _buried_ at Cicero’s villa of Puteoli—“Apud
+      ipsas Bajas periit, invisusque omnibus sepultus est in villâ
+      Ciceronianâ Puteolis.”
+
+_  452 Classical Tour_, Vol. II. c. 11.
+
+_  453 Philosophische Anmerkungen zu Cicero’s Büchern von den Pflichten_,
+      Breslau, 1819.
+
+  454 Lib. I. c. 39.
+
+  455 Rogers, _Human Life_.
+
+  456 “Fuit enim hoc in amicitiâ quasi quoddam jus inter illos, ut
+      militiæ, propter eximiam belli gloriam, Africanum ut deum coleret
+      Lælius; domi vicissim Lælium, quòd ætate antecedebat, observaret in
+      parentis loco Scipio.”
+
+_  457 Epist. Famil._ Lib. VII. ep. 18. In palimpsesto, laudo equidem
+      parsimoniam, sed miror, quid in illâ chartulâ fuerit, quod delere
+      malueris quam hæc non scribere; nisi forte tuas formulas: non enim
+      puto te meas epistolas delere, ut reponas tuas.
+
+_  458 Mem. de l’Academ. des Inscriptions, &c._ Tom. VI.
+
+  459 Mai published the _De Republicâ_ at Rome, with a preface, giving a
+      history of his discovery, notes, and an index of emendations. It was
+      reprinted from this edition at London, without change, 1823; also at
+      Paris, 1823, with the notes of Mai, and excerpts from his preface;
+      and _cura_ Steinacker at Leipsic, 1823. To this German edition there
+      is a prefatory epistle by Hermann, which I was disappointed to find
+      contained only some observations on a single passage of the _De
+      Republicâ_, with regard to the division of the citizens into classes
+      by Servius Tullius. In the same year an excellent French translation
+      was published by M. Villemain, accompanied with an introductory
+      review of the work he translates; as also notes and dissertations on
+      those topics of Education, Manners, and Religion, which he supposes
+      to have formed the subjects of the last three books which have not
+      yet been recovered.
+
+_  460 Epist. ad Quint. Frat._ Lib. II. ep. 14.
+
+_  461 Epist. ad Quint. Frat._ Lib. III. ep. 5 and 6.
+
+  462 Cælius ad Ciceronem, _Epist. Famil._ Lib. VIII. Ep. 1. Tui libri
+      politici omnibus vigent.
+
+_  463 Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. VI.
+
+_  464 Epist. ad Quint. Frat._ Lib. III. ep. 6.
+
+  465 The above quotation is from the XL. Number of the _North American
+      Review_, July 1823. It is highly creditable to the scholarship of
+      our Transatlantic brethren, that the work _De Republicâ_, should on
+      its first publication, have been the subject of an article in one of
+      their principal literary journals, while, as far as I know, the
+      reviews of this ancient land of colleges and universities, have
+      passed over, in absolute silence, the most important classical
+      discovery since the age of the Medici.
+
+  466 I do not know that this distinguishing feature of the character of
+      Cicero has been anywhere so well described as in the following
+      passage of M. Villemain, in which he has introduced in this respect
+      a beautiful comparison between Cicero and the most illustrious
+      writer of his own nation. Talking of the digression concerning the
+      Parhelion and Orrery, he admits it was little to the purpose, but he
+      adds, “Peut on se défendre d’un mouvement de respect, quand on songe
+      à ce beau caractère de curiosité philosophique, à ce goût universel
+      de la science dont fut animé Cicéron, et qui au milieu d’une vie
+      agitée par tant de travaux, et dans un état de civilisation encore
+      dénué de secours, lui fit rechercher avec un insatiable ardeur tous
+      les moyens de connoissances nouvelles et de lumières?
+      “Cet homme qui avait si laborieusement médité l’art de l’éloquence,
+      et le pratiquait chaque jour dans le Forum, dans le sénat, dans les
+      tribunaux; ce grand orateur, qui même pendant son consulat plaidait
+      encore des causes privées, au milieu d’une vie toute de gloire,
+      d’agitations, et de périls, dans ce mouvement d’inquiétudes et
+      d’affaires attesté par cette foule de lettres si admirables et si
+      rapidement écrites, étudiait encore tout ce que dans son siécle il
+      était possible de savoir. Il avait cultivé la poésie: il avait
+      approfondi et transporté chez les Romains toutes les philosophies de
+      la Grèce; il cherchait à récueillir les notions encore imparfaites
+      des sciences physiques. Nous voyons même par une de ses lettres
+      qu’il s’occupa de faire un traité technique de géographie, à peu
+      près comme VOLTAIRE compilait laborieusement un abrégé chronologique
+      de l’histoire d’Allemagne. Ces deux génies ont eu en effet ce
+      caractère distinctif de méler aux plus brillans trésors de
+      l’imagination et de goût, l’ardeur de toutes les connoissances, et
+      cette activité intellectuelle qui ne s’arrête, ni ne se lasse
+      jamais.
+      “Sans doute il y avait entre eux de grands dissemblances, surtout
+      dans cette vocation prédominante qui entrainait l’un vers
+      l’éloquence et l’autre vers la poésie; sans doute aussi la diversité
+      des temps et des situations mettait plus de difference encore entre
+      l’auteur Français de dix huitième siécle, et le Consul de la
+      republique Romaine: mais cette ardeur de tout savoir, ce mouvement
+      de la pensée qui s’appliquait également à tout, forme un trait
+      éminent qui les rapproche; et peutêtre le sentiment confus de cette
+      vérité agissait il sur Voltaire dans l’admiration si vivement
+      sentie, si sérieuse, que cet esprit contempteur de tant de renommées
+      antiques exprima toujours pour le génie de Cicéron.”—P. LXII.
+
+  467 This first book occupied in the palimpsest 211 pages. Of these, 72
+      are wanting; but two short fragments belonging to this book are to
+      be found in Lactantius and Nonius, so that about a third of the book
+      is still lost.
+
+  468 Mai cannot exactly state how much of the second book is wanting in
+      the palimpsest, but he thinks probably a third part; enough remains
+      of it to console the reader for the loss.
+
+_  469 Somnium Scipionis_.
+
+_  470 Epist. ad Attic._ Lib. XII. Ep. 14.
+
+  471 Lactantius, _Divin. Inst._ Lib. III. c. 18. Luendorum scelerum causâ
+      nasci homines.
+
+  472 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ Lib. I. _Pref._
+
+_  473 De Divin._ Lib. II. c. 9.
+
+_  474 Tusc. Disput._ Lib. III. c. 28.
+
+  475 Scharfii, _Dissert. de vero auctore Consolationis. Miscell. Lips.
+      Observ._ 130.
+
+  476 Rogers’ _Lines, written at Pæstum_.
+
+  477 Petrarch, _Epist. Rer. Senil._ Lib. XV. Ep. 1.
+
+  478 Varillas, _Vie de Louis XI. Menagiana_, Tom. II.
+
+_  479 In Comment. Epist. Ad Attic._ XV. 27.
+
+_  480 Eulogia_.
+
+  481 Mencken, _Præf. P. Alcyonî de Exilio_, Lips. 1707.
+
+  482 Tiraboschi, _Stor. dell. Letter. Ital._ Part. III. Lib. III. c. 4. §
+      14.—Ginguené thinks that Tiraboschi has completely succeeded in
+      justifying Alcyonius. _Hist. Litter. d’Ital._ T. VII. p. 254.
+
+_  483 Confess._ III. 4, and _De Vit. Beata_. proœm.
+
+  484 Tunstall, _Observations on the Epistles between Cicero and Brutus_,
+      p. 20. Ed. London, 1744.
+
+_  485 Vit. Attici_, c. 16.
+
+_  486 Epist._ Lib. VII. Ep. 1.
+
+  487 Ibid. Ep. 26.
+
+  488 A few unimportant letters which had passed between these two great
+      men, during Cicero’s proconsulship in Cilicia, were included among
+      the _Epistolæ Familiares_, and are of undisputed authenticity. It
+      does not seem clear, whether they ever formed part of the great
+      collection of eight books, which contained the subsequent
+      correspondence between Cicero and Brutus.
+
+  489 Middleton’s _Pref. to the Epistles of Cicero and Brutus_, p. 4.
+      London, 1743.
+
+  490 Tunstall, _Observations_, &c. p. 27.
+
+  491 Pliny, _Hist. Nat._
+
+_  492 Epist. ad Quint. Frat._ Lib. II. Ep. 15.
+
+_  493 Epist. __Ad__ Attic._ Lib. XIII. _passim_, ed. Schütz.
+
+  494 Ibid. _Epist._ 25.
+
+_  495 De Pueritia Ling. Lat._ c. 1. § 10. Adamum scribendi atque
+      _signandi_ modum præmonstrasse primitus ratio ipsa persuadet.
+
+  496 Lennep, _De Tirone_, p. 77. Ed. Amsteld. 1804.
+
+  497 Kopp, _Palæographia Critica_. Ed. Manheim, 1817. 2 Tom. 4to.
+
+  498 Isidorus, _Originum_, Lib. I. c. 21.
+
+  499 Manilius, _Astronom._ Lib. IV. v. 197.
+
+  500 Lib. XIV. Epig. 202.
+
+  501 Epigr. 138.
+
+  502 Kopp, _Palæographia Critica_.
+
+  503 Quintil. _Inst. Orator._ Lib. I. c. 3.
+
+  504 Ibid.
+
+  505 Funccius, _De Virili Ætat. Ling. Lat._ Pars II. c. 8. § 9.
+
+_  506 Epist.__ ad Quint. __Frat._ Lib. III. Ep. 5.
+
+_  507 Geograph._ Lib. XIII.
+
+  508 Lib. II. Ep. 8.
+
+_  509 Noct. Attic._ Lib. II. c. 14. _et passim_.
+
+_  510 Ibid._ Lib. XX. c. 6.
+
+_  511 Noct. Attic._ Lib. III. c. 10.
+
+  512 Tacit. _Annal._ Lib. XV. c. 38–41.
+
+  513 Joann. Sarisberiensis, _De Nug. Curial._ Lib. VIII. c. 19.
+      Lursenius, _Dissert. De Bibliothecis Veterum_, p. 297.
+
+  514 Sulp. Severus, _De Martini Vita_, c. 16.
+
+_  515 Epist._ XVIII. _Opera_.
+
+  516 Cassiodor. _Opera_.
+
+  517 Petit-Radel, _Recherches sur les Biblioth. Anciennes_.
+
+_  518 Stor. dell Letter. Ital._ Part I. Lib. I.
+
+_  519 Bibliotheca Latin._
+
+_  520 De Nug. Cur._ Lib. VIII. c. 19.
+
+_  521 Ibid._ Lib. II. c. 26.
+
+  522 Tom. I.
+
+_  523 De Historicis Latinis_, Lib. I, c. 19.
+
+_  524 Hist. Critic. Philosoph._ Tom. III.
+
+_  525 Stor. dell Letterat. Ital._ Tom. III. Lib. II. c. 2.
+
+_  526 Dict. Histor._ Art. GREGOIRE.
+
+_  527 Vicende della Letteratura_, Lib. I. c. 3.
+
+_  528 Hist. Litter. d’Italie_, Tom. I. c. 2.
+
+  529 Bayle, _Diction. Histor._ Art. GREGOIRE. Rem. M. Gibbon’s _Decline
+      and Fall of the Rom. Emp._ c. 45.
+
+  530 Muratori, _Antiquitates Italiæ Med. Ævi_. Tom. III. p. 853. ed.
+      Milan, 1741.
+
+  531 Tiraboschi, _Stor. dell. Letterat. Ital._ Tom. III. Lib. II.
+
+_  532 Ibid._
+
+  533 Petit-Radel, _Recherches sur les Biblioth. Anciennes_, p. 53.
+
+  534 Eichhorn, _Litterargeschichte_, ed. Gotting. 1812.
+
+  535 Lupi, _Epist._ 103. dated 855.
+
+  536 Ibid. Ep. 91.
+
+  537 Epist. 69.
+
+  538 Ginguené, _Hist. Litt. d’Italie_, Tom. I. p. 63.
+
+  539 Ziegel, _Hist. Rei Liter._ Tom. I. _Hist. Liter. de la France_, Tom.
+      IV.
+
+  540 Hallam’s _State of Europe during the Middle Ages_, Vol. III. p. 332,
+      2d ed.
+
+_  541 Annali d’Italia_, Ad. Ann. 899, &c.
+
+_  542 Epist._ 130.
+
+_  543 Epist._ 44.
+
+_  544 Antiquitates Italiæ Med. Ævi_, Tom. III. p. 818. The most valuable
+      books of the Bobbian collection were transferred, in the seventeenth
+      century, by the Cardinal Borromeo, to the Ambrosian library at
+      Milan; and it is from the Bobbian Palimpsesti there discovered, that
+      Mai has recently edited his fragments of orations of Cicero, and
+      plays of Plautus.
+
+  545 Mehus, _Vita Ambrosii Camaldulensis_, p. 157. ed. Florent. 1759.
+
+_  546 Ibid._ p. 183.
+
+  547 Petrarc. _Epist. ad M. Varronem_.
+
+  548 Mill’s _Travels of Theodore Ducas_, Vol. I. p. 28.
+
+_  549 Vita Ambrosii Camaldulensis_, p. 290.
+
+_  550 Ibid._ p. 291.
+
+_  551 Ibid._ p. 335.
+
+  552 Roscoe’s _Life of Lorenzo de Medici_, c. 1.
+
+_  553 Epist._ Lib. V.
+
+  554 Morhoff, _Polyhistor_. Lib. I. c. 7. Lomeierus, _De Bibliothecis_,
+      c. 9. § 2.
+
+  555 Ap. Mehus, _Pref. ad Epist. Ambros. Camaldulensis_, p. 33. ed.
+      Florent. 1759.
+
+  556 Ibid. p. 31.
+
+  557 Ibid. p. 50.
+
+  558 Ibid. p. 44.
+
+  559 Ibid. p. 31.
+
+  560 Roscoe’s _Life of Lorenzo de Medici_, c. 1.
+
+  561 Mehus, _Pref._ p. 67.
+
+  562 Avogradi, _De Magnificentiâ Cosmi Medices_, Lib. II.
+
+        “O mira in tectis bibliotheca tuis!
+        Nunc legis altisoni sparsim pia scripta Maronis,
+        Nunc ea quæ Cicero ——” &c.
+
+  563 Roscoe, _Life of Lorenzo_, c. 7.
+
+_  564 Polit. Epist._ Lib. IV. Ep. 2.
+
+_  565 Travels of Theod. Ducas_, c. 1.
+
+  566 Berrington, _Literary Hist. of the Middle Ages_, Book VI.
+
+_  567 Polyhistor_. Lib. IV. c. 10.
+
+_  568 De Luxurie Veterum Poet. Lat._
+
+  569 Eichhorn, _Litterargeschichte_, Tom. III. p. 569.
+
+  570 Evelyn’s _Memoirs and Corresp._ Vol. II. p. 173. Second ed.
+
+  571 Morhoff, _Polyhistor_. Lib. IV. c. 11.
+
+  572 Thuanus, _Hist._ Lib. LXXXIV.
+
+_  573 Handbuch__ der Classisch. Litteratur._ T. III. p. 31.
+
+  574 Osannus, _Analecta Critica_, c. 8.
+
+_  575 Præf. ad Plautum_, ed. Lambini.
+
+_  576 Epist. Famil._ Lib. V.
+
+  577 Bandini, _Catalog. Cod. Lat. Bibliothecæ Mediceæ-Laurentianæ_, Tom.
+      II. p. 243, &c.
+
+  578 Mehus, _Pref. ad Epist. Ambros. Camaldul._ p. 41.
+
+  579 Ibid.
+
+_  580 Ambros. Camaldul. Epist._ Lib. VIII. Ep. 31.
+
+  581 Harles, _Supplement. ad Not. Literat. Rom._ Tom. II. p. 483.
+
+  582 Renouard, _Hist. de l’Imprim. des Aldes_. Tom. I. p. 162.
+
+  583 Muretus, in a letter dated about this time, (1581,) and addressed to
+      his friend Paullus Sacratus, mentions, in the strongest terms of
+      regret and resentment, that a Plautus, on the correction and
+      emendation of which he had bestowed the labour and study of
+      twenty-five years of his life, had been stolen from him by some
+      person whom he admitted to his library. (_Epist._ Lib. III. Ep. 28.)
+
+_  584 Don Juan_.
+
+  585 Maffei, _Traduttori Italiani_, p. 8. Ed. Venez. 1720.
+
+  586 Ibid. 70.
+
+  587 Paitoni, _Biblioteca degli autor. Lat. Volgarizzati_, Tom. III. p.
+      118.
+
+_  588 Curiosities of Literature_, Vol, I. New series.
+
+_  589 Journal Historique_. Amsterdam, 1719.
+
+_  590 Bib. Lat._ Lib. I. c. 1. § 8.
+
+_  591 Pref._ to Johnson and Steevens’ _Shakspeare_, p. 96. 3d Ed.
+
+  592 Vol. I. p. 370.
+
+  593 Boswell’s _Tour to the Hebrides_.
+
+  594 Ginguené, _Hist. Lit. d’Italie_, Tom. II. p. 290.
+
+_  595 Bib. Lat._ Lib. I. c. 3. § 4.
+
+  596 Polit. _Epist._
+
+  597 Bandini, _Catalog. Bib. Med. Laurent._ p. 264. Hawkin’s _Inquiry
+      into Lat. Poet._ p. 200.
+
+  598 Dibdin, _Bibliotheca Spenceriana_, Tom. II.
+
+_  599 Minerva, o Giornal. de Letter. d’Ital._
+
+  600 Argelati, _Biblioteca de Volgarizzatori_, Tom. IV. p. 44.
+
+  601 Renouard, _Hist. de l’Imprim. des Aldes_, Tom. I.
+
+_  602 De la louange des bons facteurs en Rime_.
+
+  603 Sulzer, _Theorie der Schönen Wissensch. Terenz_.
+
+  604 Baillet, _Jugemens des Sçavans_.
+
+_  605 Mem. de Trevoux_, 1721.
+
+  606 Goujet, _Bib. Fran._ Tom. IV. p. 436.
+
+_  607 De Vit. et Carm. Lucret. Præf._
+
+  608 See Good’s _Lucretius, Pref._ p. 99. Eichstädt, _De Vit. &c.
+      Lucret._ p. 65.
+
+  609 Lib. XV. c. 2.
+
+  610 Barbari, _Epist. I. ad Poggium_.
+
+  611 Mehus, _Præf. ad Epist. Ambros. Camaldul._ p. 38.
+
+  612 Renouard, _Annales de l’Imprimerie des Aldes_, Tom. I.
+
+_  613 Biblioth. Franc._ Tom. V.
+
+  614 Good’s _Lucretius_, _Preface_.
+
+  615 See Goujet, _Bibliotheque Françoise_, Tom. V. p. 18. Fabricius,
+      however, says, that he does not know who was the author of this
+      verse translation, and Mr Good, in the preface to his Lucretius,
+      attributes it to one James Langlois, who, he says, translated not
+      from the original Latin, but from Marolles’ prose version.
+
+  616 Evelyn’s _Memoirs_, Tom. I.
+
+  617 Evelyn’s _Memoirs and Correspondence_, Vol. II. p. 102, 2d edit.
+
+  618 Spence’s _Anecdotes_, p. 106.
+
+_  619 Literary Hours_, No. II.
+
+_  620 Noct. Attic._ Lib. VII. c. 20.
+
+  621 Maffei, _Verona Illustrata_, Part II. p. 4.
+
+  622 Ibid. Part II. p. 6.
+
+_  623 Sammtliche Schriften_, Tom. I.
+
+_  624 Symbol. Epist._ XVI.
+
+  625 Part. II. p. 5.
+
+  626 P. 477.
+
+  627 Brüggemann, _View of the English Editions, Translations, &c. of the
+      Ancient Latin Authors_.
+
+  628 Mehus, _Præf._ p. 50.
+
+_  629 Epist. Ad Ambrosium Camald._ Ep. 39.
+
+  630 Gesner, _Præf._
+
+  631 See Maffei, _Verona Illustrata_, Part II. Lib. III.
+
+_  632 Præf. Pet. Victor. in explicationes, suar. Castig. in Cat. &c._
+
+_  633 Præf._ p. 20.
+
+_  634 Epist. Ad Marcel. Cervinum_.
+
+_  635 Introduct. in Notit. Litt. Rom._
+
+_  636 Epist._ 104.
+
+  637 Warton, _Hist. of English Poetry_, Vol. I. Dissert. II.
+
+  638 Fuhrmann, _Handbuch der Classisch. Lit._
+
+  639 Dibdin, _Introduction to the Classics_, Vol. II. p. 197.
+
+  640 Fabricius, _Bib. Lat._ Lib. I. c. 9.
+
+_  641 Ibid._
+
+_  642 Ibid._
+
+  643 Villaret, _Hist. de France_, T. XI. p. 121.
+
+  644 Stuart’s _Sallust_, Essay II.
+
+_  645 Epist._ 37.
+
+_  646 Epist._ 8.
+
+_  647 Biblioteca degli Volgarizzatori_, Tom. I. p. 206.
+
+  648 Villaret, _Hist. de France_, T. XI. p. 121.
+
+  649 Plin. _Epist._ Lib. I. Ep. 20.
+
+_  650 Epist. Famil._ Lib. IX. Ep. 12.
+
+_  651 Epist._ 87.
+
+  652 Tiraboschi, _Stor. dell Lett. Ital._ Tom. IV. Lib. III. c. 5. § 21.
+      Maffei, _Traduttori Ital._ p. 41.
+
+_  653 Epist. Ad Vir. Illust._ ep. 2.
+
+  654 Mehus, _Vit. Ambros. Camald._ p. 213.
+
+  655 Ginguené, _Hist. Lit. d’Italie_, Tom. II. Shepherd’s _Life of
+      Poggio_. Bandini, _Catal. Codic. Biblioth. Medic. Laurent._ Tom. II.
+      p. 432.
+
+  656 Paitoni, _Bibliotec. degli Autor. Volgarizzati_.
+
+  657 Epist. 1.
+
+  658 Hallam’s _Europe during the Middle Ages_, Vol. III. p. 524. 3d ed.
+
+  659 B. Flavii, _Ital. Illust._ p. 346. ap. Meiners, _Lebenschreibung
+      Beruhmter manner_, Tom. I. p. 39. Ginguené, _Hist. Lit._ Tom. II.
+      Pet. Victor, _in Castigat. ad Cicer. post castig. in Paradox._
+
+  660 Lemprid. _in Alex. Sev._ c. 29. “Latina cùm legeret, non alia magis
+      legebat quàm de Officiis Ciceronis et De Republicâ.”
+
+_  661 Epist. Senil._ Lib. XV. Ep. 1.
+
+  662 Clayton’s _History of the House of Medici_, c. 3
+
+_  663 Vit. Attic._ c. 16.
+
+_  664 Epist._ 69.
+
+  665 Petrarc. _Epist. ad Viros Illust._ Ep. 1.
+
+  666 Mehus, _Vit. Ambros. Camald._ p. 214.
+
+  667 Fabricius, _Bib. Lat._ Lib. I. c. 8.
+
+  668 Pet. Vict. _Epist._
+
+  669 Lagomarsini, _ad Poggii Epist._ I. 189.
+
+_  670 Epist. ad Vir. Illust._ Ep. I.
+
+  671 Bandini, _Catalog. Bib. Laurent._ p. 474.
+
+  672 Lib. VII.
+
+  673 Fuhrmann, _Handbuch der Classisch. Lit._ T. IV. p. 208.
+
+_  674 Epist._ Lib. II. Ep. 15.
+
+_  675 Epist._ 69.
+
+  676 Tiraboschi, _Stor. dell’ Letterat. Ital._ T. VI. Part I. Lib. I.
+
+  677 Beloe, _Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books_, Vol. VI. p. 140.
+
+_  678 Introduct. in Notit. Literat. Roman._ p. 47.
+
+  679 Ibid. p. 84.
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
+
+
+The table of contents has been added in the electronic version.
+
+The appendix is paginated separately. The page numbers of the appendix
+have been prefixed with “A-”.
+
+“Ibid.” is sometimes printed in italics, sometimes not.
+
+In the original, the Appendix was printed in a smaller font.
+
+The book has many inconsistencies in spelling, capitalization or
+punctuation, especially in the quotations from foreign languages, where
+sometimes diacritical signs are missing or wrong. They were not corrected
+or modernized, except in the following places which can be regarded as
+printing errors.
+
+      page 8, “Liv.” changed to “Lib.”
+      page 16, “Appian” changed to “Oppian”
+      page 22, “from” added before “the city”
+      page 22, “questiones” changed to “quæstiones”
+      page 23, “Cumae” changed to “Cumæ”, “sylvae” to “sylvæ”, “villae” to
+      “villæ”
+      page 28, “edile” changed to “ædile”
+      page 32, “Edile” changed to “Ædile”
+      page 40, “Theatreales” changed to “Theatrales”
+      page 42, quote added following “vitâ.”
+      page 57, period removed following “Taciti”
+      page 68, “vented” changed to “invented”
+      page 68, comma changed to period following “fables”
+      page 71, “givi g” changed to “giving”
+      page 71, “c.” added before “53”
+      page 83, italics removed from second “Sat.”
+      page 87, “Sullust’s” changed to “Sallust’s”
+      page 91, “a” changed to “à”
+      page 93, period added following “unsuccessfully”
+      page 117, “appropiate” changed to “appropriate”
+      page 128, “restain” changed to “restrain”
+      page 128, period removed following “Dio”
+      page 129, “alnost” changed to “almost”
+      page 133, period added following “patrician”
+      page 139, “coepissent” changed to “cœpissent”
+      page 177, period added following “court”
+      page 178, “Phillippic” changed to “Philippic”
+      page 188, “á” changed to “à”
+      page 191, “Bnt” changed to “But”
+      page 195, “occured” changed to “occurred”
+      page 204, “Praef.” changed to “Præf.”
+      page 210, “whe” changed to “who”
+      page 211, comma added following “Scipio”
+      page 218, “a” added before “philosopher”
+      page 220, quote added following “abundo”
+      page 233, “fron” changed to “from”
+      page 237, “rerepresenting” changed to “representing”
+      page 241, “Metullus” changed to “Metellus”
+      page 246, “phiosopher” changed to “philosopher”
+      page 253 and A-61, “Natura” changed to “Naturâ”
+      page 253, quote added following “scribere.”
+      page 262, quote added following “father.”
+      page 268, double “their” removed before “known characters”
+      page 268, quote added following “wisdom.”
+      page 272, “praebituram” changed to “præbituram”
+      page 279, “Cœlius” changed to “Cælius” (twice)
+      page 284, “betwen” changed to “between”
+      page 285, “latinity” changed to “Latinity”
+      page 285, “appellatæ” changed to “appellate”
+      page A-3, italics removed from “Ep.”
+      page A-3, period removed following “Ad”, “Schutz” changed to
+      “Schütz”
+      page A-5, period added following “Epist” and “Frat”
+      page A-12, “Abbe” changed to “Abbé”
+      page A-17, “Causaubon” changed to “Casaubon”
+      page A-17, “seventh” changed to “seventeenth”
+      page A-19, “Georenz” changed to “Goerenz”
+      page A-19, period added following “MSS”
+      page A-20, apostroph added following “Scriverius”
+      page A-21, “Hundbuch” changed to “Handbuch”
+      page A-28, comma added following “Ginguené”
+      page A-29, “Schmeider” changed to “Schmieder”
+      page A-30, “Varard” changed to “Verard”
+      page A-31, comma added following “Goujet”
+      page A-34, period added following “MSS”
+      page A-44, “edite” changed to “edit”
+      page A-49, “Sweyn” changed to “Sweynheim”
+      page A-57, “whch” changed to “which”
+      page A-59, “Jenae” changed to “Jenæ”
+      page A-62, “Tirannio” changed to “Tyrannio”
+
+Some variant spellings were not changed (e. g. “Ferierres” and “Ferriers”,
+“truly” and “truely”).
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE FROM ITS EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE AUGUSTAN AGE. VOLUME II***
+
+
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