APPENDIX B.

"For in the air do I behold indeedAn eagle and a serpent wreathed in fight,And now relaxing its impetuous flight,Before the aerial rock on which I stoodThe eagle, hovering, wheeled to left and right,And hung with lingering wings over the flood,And startled with its yells the wide air's solitude"A shaft of light upon its wings descended,And every golden feather gleamed therein—Feather and scale inextricably blendedThe serpent's mailed and many-colored skinShone through the plumes, its coils were twined withinBy many a swollen and knotted fold, and highAnd far, the neck receding lithe and thin,Sustained a crested head, which warilyShifted and glanced before the eagle's steadfast eye."Around, around, in ceaseless circles wheeling,With clang of wings and scream, the eagle sailedIncessantly—sometimes on high concealingIts lessening orbs, sometimes, as if it failed,Drooped through the air, and still it shrieked and wailed,And casting back its eager head, with beakAnd talon unremittingly assailedThe wreathed serpent, who did ever seekUpon his enemy's heart a mortal wound to wreak"What life, what power was kindled, and aroseWithin the sphere of that appalling fray!For, from the encounter of those wond'rous foes,A vapor like the sea's suspended sprayHung gathered; in the void air, far away,Floated the shattered plumes; bright scales did leap,Where'er the eagle's talons made their way,Like sparks into the darkness; as they sweep,Blood stains the snowy foam of the tumultuous deep."Swift chances in that combat—many a check,And many a change—a dark and wild turmoil;Sometimes the snake around his enemy's neckLocked in stiff rings his adamantine coil,Until the eagle, faint with pain and toil,Remitted his strong flight, and near the seaLanguidly fluttered, hopeless so to foilHis adversary, who then reared on highHis red and burning crest, radiant with victory."Then on the white edge of the bursting surge,Where they had sunk together, would the snakeRelax his suffocating grasp, and scourgeThe wind with his wild writhings; for, to breakThat chain of torment, the vast bird would shakeThe strength of his unconquerable wingsAs in despair, and with his sinewy neckDissolve in sudden shock those linked rings,Then soar—as swift as smoke from a volcano springs."Wile baffled wile, and strength encountered strength,Thus long, but unprevailing—the eventOf that portentous fight appeared at length.Until the lamp of day was almost spentIt had endured, when lifeless, stark, and rent,Hung high that mighty serpent, and at lastFell to the sea, while o'er the continent,With clang of wings and scream, the eagle past,Heavily borne away on the exhausted blast."

I have repudiated the adverse criticism on Cicero's poetry which has been attributed to Juvenal; but, having done so, am bound in fairness to state that which is to be found elsewhere in any later author of renownas a classic. In the treatise De Oratoribus, attributed to Tacitus, and generally published with his works by him—a treatise commenced, probably, in the last year of Vespasian's reign, and completed only in that of Domitian—Cicero as a poet is spoken of with a severity of censure which the writer presumes to have been his recognized desert. "For Cæsar," he says, "and Brutus made verses, and sent them to the public libraries; not better, indeed, than Cicero, but with less of general misfortune, because only a few people knew that they had done so." This must be taken for what it is worth. The treatise, let it have been written by whom it might, is full of wit, and is charming in language and feeling. It is a dialogue after the manner of Cicero himself, and is the work of an author well conversant with the subjects in hand. But it is, no doubt, the case that those two unfortunate lines which have been quoted became notorious in Rome when there was a party anxious to put down Cicero.

"There were at that time two orators, Cotta and Hortensius, who towered above all others, and incited me to rival them. The first spoke with self-restraint and moderation, clearly and easily, expressing his ideas in appropriate language. The other was magnificent and fierce; not such as you remember him, Brutus, when he was already failing, but full of life both in his words and actions. I then resolved that Hortensius should, of the two, be my model, because I felt myself like to him in his energy, and nearer to him in his age. I observed that when they were in the same causes, those for Canuleius and for our consular Dolabella, though Cotta was the senior counsel, Hortensius took the lead. A large gathering of men and the noise of the Forum require that a speaker shall be quick, on fire, active, and loud. The year after my return from Asia I undertook the charge of causes that were honorable, and in that year I was seeking to be Quæstor, Cotta to be Consul, and Hortensius to be Prætor. Then for a year I served as Quæstor in Sicily. Cotta, after his Consulship, went as governor into Gaul, and then Hortensius was, and was considered to be, first at the bar. When I had been back from Sicily twelve months I began to find that whatever there was within me had come to such perfection as it might attain. I feel that I am speaking too much of myself, but it is done, not that you may be made to own my ability or my eloquence—which is far from my thoughts—but that you may see how great was my toil and my industry. Then, when I had been employed for nearly five years in many cases, and was accounted a leading advocate, I specially concerned myself in conducting the great cause on behalf of Sicily—the trial of Verres—when I and Hortensius were Ædile and Consul designate.

"But as this discussion of ours is intended to produce not a mere catalogue of orators, but some true lessons of oratory, let us see what there was in Hortensius that we must blame. When he was out of his Consulship, seeing that among past Consuls there was no one on a par with him, and thinking but little of those who were below consular rank, he became idle in his work to which from boyhood he had devoted himself, and chose to live in the midst of his wealth, as he thought a happier life—certainlyan easier one. The first two or three years took off something from him. As the gradual decay of a picture will be observed by the true critic, though it be not seen by the world at large, so was it with his decay. From day to day he became more and more unlike his old self, failing in all branches of oratory, but specially in the rapidity and continuity of his words. But for myself I never rested, struggling always to increase whatever power there was in me by practice of every kind, especially in writing. Passing over many things in the year after I was Ædile, I will come to that in which I was elected first Prætor, to the great delight of the public generally; for I had gained the good-will of men, partly by my attention to the causes which I undertook, but specially by a certain new strain of eloquence, as excellent as it was uncommon, with which I spoke." Cicero, when he wrote this of himself, was an old man sixty-two years of age, broken hearted for the loss of his daughter, to whom it was no doubt allowed among his friends to praise himself with the garrulity of years, because it was understood that he had been unequalled in the matter of which he was speaking. It is easy for us to laugh at his boastings; but the account which he gives of his early life, and of the manner in which he attained the excellence for which he had been celebrated, is of value.

There was still prevailing in Rome at this time a strong feeling that a growing taste for these ornamental luxuries was injurious to the Republic, undermining its simplicity and weakening its stability. We are well aware that its simplicity was a thing of the past, and its stability gone The existence of a Verres is proof that it was so; but still the feeling remained—and did remain long after the time of Cicero—that these beautiful things were a sign of decay. We know how conquering Rome caught the taste for them from conquered Greece. "Græcia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes intulit agresti Latio."286Cicero submitted himself to this new captivity readily, but with apologies, as shown in his pretended abnegation of all knowledge of art. Two years afterward, in a letter to Atticus, giving him instructions as to the purchase of statues, he declares that he is altogether carried away by his longing for such things, but not without a feeling of shame. "Nam in eo genere sic studio efferimur ut abs te adjuvandi, ab aliis propre reprehendi simus"287—"Though you will help me, others I know will blame me." The same feeling is expressed beautifully, but no doubt falsely, by Horace when he declares, as Cicero had done, his own indifference to such delicacies:

"Gems, marbles, ivory, Tuscan statuettes,Pictures, gold plate, Gætulian coverlets,There are who have not. One there is, I trow,Who cares not greatly if he has or no."288

Many years afterward, in the time of Tiberius, Velleius Paterculus says the same when he is telling how ignorant Mummius was of sculpture, who, when he had taken Corinth, threatened those who had to carry away the statues from their places, that if they broke any they should be made to replace them. "You will not doubt, however," the historian says, "that it would have been better for the Republic to remain ignorant of these Corinthian gems than to understand them as well as it does now.That rudeness befitted the public honor better than our present taste."289Cicero understood well enough, with one side of his intelligence, that as the longing for these things grew in the minds of rich men, as the leading Romans of the day became devoted to luxury rather than to work, the ground on which the Republic stood must be sapped. A Marcellus or a Scipio had taken glory in ornamenting the city. A Verres or even an Hortensius—even a Cicero—was desirous of beautiful things for his own house. But still, with the other side of his intelligence, he saw that a perfect citizen might appreciate art, and yet do his duty, might appreciate art, and yet save his country. What he did not see was, that the temptations of luxury, though compatible with virtue, are antagonistic to it. The camel may be made to go through the eye of the needle—but it is difficult.

On reading, however, the piece over again, I almost doubt whether there be any passages in it which should be selected as superior to others.

"O maleconcordes, nimiaque cupidine cæci,Quid miscere juvat vires orbemque tenereIn medio."

"Temporis angusti mansit concordia discors,Paxque fuit non sponte ducum. Nam sola futuriCrassus erat belli medius mora. Qualiter undasQui secat, et geminum gracilis mare separat isthmos,Nec patitur conferre fretum; si terra recedat,Ionium Ægæo frangat mare. Sic, ubi sævaArma ducum dirimens, miserando funere CrassusAssyrias latio maculavit sanguine Carras."

"Dividitur ferro regnum; populique potentis,Quæ mare, quæ terras, quæ totum possidet orbem,Non cepit fortuna duos."

"Tu nova ne veteres obscurent acta triumphos,Et victis cedat piratica laurea Gallis,Magne, times; te jam series, ususque laborumErigit, impatiensque loci fortuna secundi.Nec quemquam jam ferre potest Cæsarve priorem,Pompeiusve parem. Quis justius induit arma,Scire nefas; magno se judice quisque tuetur,Victrix causa deis placuit sed victa, Catoni.296

Nec coiere pares; alter vergentibus annisIn senium, longoque togæ tranquillior usuDedidicit jam pace ducem; famæque petitorMulta dare in vulgas; totus popularibus aurisImpelli, plausuque sui gaudere theatri;Nec reparare novas vires, multumque prioriCredere fortunæ. Stat magni nominis umbra."

"Sed non in Cæsare tantumNomen erat, nec fama ducis; sed nescia virtusStare loco; solusque pudor non vincere bello.Acer et indomitus; quo spes, quoque ira vocasset,Ferre manum, et nunquam te merando parcere ferro;Successus urgere suos; instare favoriNuminis."—Lucan, lib. i.

1Froude's Cæsar, p.444.

2Ibid., p.428.

3Ad Att., lib. xiii., 28.

4Ad Att., lib. ix., 10.

5Froude, p.365.

6Ad Att., lib. ii., 5: "Quo quidem uno ego ab istis capi possum."

7The Cincian law, of which I shall have to speak again, forbade Roman advocates to take any payment for their services. Cicero expressly declares that he has always obeyed that law. He accused others of disobeying it, as, for instance, Hortensius. But no contemporary has accused him. Mr. Collins refers to some books which had been given to Cicero by his friend Pœtus. They are mentioned in a letter to Atticus, lib. i., 20; and Cicero, joking, says that he has consulted Cincius—perhaps some descendant of him who made the law 145 years before—as to the legality of accepting the present. But we have no reason for supposing that he had ever acted as an advocate for Pœtus.

8Virgil, Æneid, i., 150:"Ac, veluti magno in populo quum sæpe coorta estSeditio, sævitque animis ignobile vulgus;Jamque faces, et saxa volant; furor arma ministrat:Tum, pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quemConspexere, silent, arrectisque auribus adstant;Iste regit dictis animos, et pectora mulcet."

8Virgil, Æneid, i., 150:

"Ac, veluti magno in populo quum sæpe coorta estSeditio, sævitque animis ignobile vulgus;Jamque faces, et saxa volant; furor arma ministrat:Tum, pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quemConspexere, silent, arrectisque auribus adstant;Iste regit dictis animos, et pectora mulcet."

9The author is saying that a history from Cicero would have been invaluable, and the words are "interitu ejus utrum respublica an historia magis doleat."

10Quintilian tells us this, lib. ii., c. 5. The passage of Livy is not extant. The commentators suppose it to have been taken from a letter to his son.

11Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii., c. 34.

12Valerius Maximus, lib. iv., c. 2; 4.

13Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. vii., xxxi., 30.

14Martial, lib. xiv., 188.

15Lucan, lib. vii., 62:"Cunctorum voces Romani maximus auctorTullius eloquii, cujus sub jure togaquePacificas sævus tremuit Catilina secures,Pertulit iratus bellis, cum rostra forumqueOptaret passus tam longa silentia milesAddidit invalidæ robur facundia causæ."

15Lucan, lib. vii., 62:

"Cunctorum voces Romani maximus auctorTullius eloquii, cujus sub jure togaquePacificas sævus tremuit Catilina secures,Pertulit iratus bellis, cum rostra forumqueOptaret passus tam longa silentia milesAddidit invalidæ robur facundia causæ."

16Tacitus, De Oratoribus, xxx.

17Juvenal, viii., 243.

18Demosthenes and Cicero compared.

19Quintilian, xii., 1.

20"Repudiatus vigintiviratus." He refused a position of official value rendered vacant by the death of one Cosconius. See Letters to Atticus, 2,19.

21Florus, lib. iv., 1. In a letter from Essex to Foulke Greville, the writing of which has been attributed to Bacon by Mr. Spedding, Florus is said simply to have epitomized Livy (Life, vol. ii., p.23). In this I think that Bacon has shorn him of his honors.

22Florus, lib. iv., 1.

23Sallust, Catilinaria, xxiii.

24I will add the concluding passage from the pseudo declamation, in order that the reader may see the nature of the words which were put into Sallust's mouth: "Quos tyrannos appellabas, eorum nunc potentiæ faves; qui tibi ante optumates videbantur, eosdem nunc dementes ac furiosos vocas; Vatinii caussam agis, de Sextio male existumas; Bibulum petulantissumis verbis lædis, laudas Cæsarem; quem maxume odisti, ei maxume obsequeris. Aliud stans, aliud sedens, de republica sentis; his maledicis, illos odisti; levissume transfuga, neque in hac, neque illa parte fidem habes." Hence Dio Cassius declared that Cicero had been called a turncoat. καὶ αὐτόμαλος ὠνομάζετο.

25Dio Cassius, lib. xlvi., 18: πρὸς ἣν καὶ αὐτὴν τοιαύτας ἐπίστολας γραφεὶς οἵας ἂν γράψειεν ἀνὴρ σκωπτόλης ἀθυρόγλωρρος ... καὶ προσέτι καὶ τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ διαβάλλειν ἐπεχείρησε τοσαύτη ἀσελγεία καὶ ἀκαθαρσία παρὰ πάντα τὸν βιὸν χρώμενος ὥστε μηδὲ τῶν συγγενεστάτων ἀπέχεσθαι, ἀλλὰ τήν τε γυναῖκα προαγωγεύειν καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα μοιχεύειν.

26As it happens, De Quincey specially calls Cicero a man of conscience. "Cicero is one of the very few pagan statesmen who can be described as a thoroughly conscientious man," he says. The purport of his illogical essay on Cicero is no doubt thoroughly hostile to the man. It is chiefly worth reading on account of the amusing virulence with which Middleton, the biographer, is attacked.

27Quintilian, lib. ii., c. 5.

28De Finibus, lib. v., ca. xxii.: "Nemo est igitur, qui non hanc affectionem animi probet atque laudet."

29De Rep., lib. vi., ca. vii.: "Nihil est enim illi principi deo, qui omnem hunc mundum regit, quod quidem in terris fiat acceptius." Tusc. Quest., lib. i., ca. xxx.: "Vetat enim dominans ille in nobis deus."

30De Rep., lib. vi., ca. vii.: "Certum esse in cœlo definitum locum, ubi beati ævo sempiterno fruantur."

31Hor., lib. i., Ode xxii.,"Non rura qua; Liris quietaMordet aqua taciturnus amnis."

31Hor., lib. i., Ode xxii.,

"Non rura qua; Liris quietaMordet aqua taciturnus amnis."

32Such was the presumed condition of things at Rome. By the passing of a special law a plebeian might, and occasionally did, become patrician. The patricians had so nearly died out in the time of Julius Cæsar that he introduced fifty new families by the Lex Cassia.

33De Orat., lib. ii., ca. 1.

34Brutus, ca. lxxxix.

35It should be remembered that in Latin literature it was the recognized practice of authors to borrow wholesale from the Greek, and that no charge of plagiarism attended such borrowing. Virgil, in taking thoughts and language from Homer, was simply supposed to have shown his judgment in accommodating Greek delights to Roman ears and Roman intellects.The idea as to literary larceny is of later date, and has grown up with personal claims for originality and with copyright. Shakspeare did not acknowledge whence he took his plots, because it was unnecessary. Now, if a writer borrow a tale from the French, it is held that he ought at least to owe the obligation, or perhaps even pay for it.

The idea as to literary larceny is of later date, and has grown up with personal claims for originality and with copyright. Shakspeare did not acknowledge whence he took his plots, because it was unnecessary. Now, if a writer borrow a tale from the French, it is held that he ought at least to owe the obligation, or perhaps even pay for it.

36Juvenal, Sat. x., 122,"O fortunatam natam me Consule Romam!Antoni gladios potuit contemnere, si sicOmnia dixisset."

36Juvenal, Sat. x., 122,

"O fortunatam natam me Consule Romam!Antoni gladios potuit contemnere, si sicOmnia dixisset."

37De Leg., lib. i., ca. 1.

38Life and Times of Henry Lord Brougham, written by himself, vol. i., p. 58.

39I give the nine versions to which I allude in an Appendix A, at the end of this volume, so that those curious in such matters may compare the words in which the same picture has been drawn by various hands.

40Pro Archia, ca. vii.

41Brutus, ca. xc.

42Tacitus, De Oratoribus, xxx.

43Quintilian, lib. xii., c. vi., who wrote about the same time as this essayist, tells us of these three instances of early oratory, not, however, specifying the exact age in either case. He also reminds us that Demosthenes pleaded when he was a boy, and that Augustus at the age of twelve made a public harangue in honor of his grandmother.

44Brutus, ca. xc.

45Brutus, xci.

46Quintilian, lib. xii., vi.: "Quum jam clarum meruisset inter patronos, qui tum erant, nomen, in Asiam navigavit, seque et aliis sine dubio eloquentiæ ac sapientiæ magistris, sed præcipue tamen Apollonio Moloni, quem Romæ quoque audierat, Rhodi rursus formandum ac velut recognendum dedit."

47Brutus, xci.

48The total correspondence contains 817 letters, of which 52 were written to Cicero, 396 were written by Cicero to Atticus, and 369 by Cicero to his friends in general. We have no letters from Atticus to Cicero.

49Quintilian, lib. x., ca. 1.

50Clemens of Alexandria, in his exhortation to the Gentiles, is very severe upon the iniquities of these rites. "All evil be to him," he says, "who brought them into fashion, whether it was Dardanus, or Eetion the Thracian, or Midas the Phrygian." The old story which he repeats as to Ceres and Proserpine may have been true, but he was altogether ignorant of the changes which the common-sense of centuries had produced.

51De Legibus, lib. ii., c. xiv.

52It was then that the foreign empire commenced, in ruling which the simplicity and truth of purpose and patriotism of the Republic were lost.

53The reverses of fortune to which Marius was subjected, how he was buried up to his neck in the mud, hiding in the marshes of Minturnæ, how he would have been killed by the traitorous magistrates of that city but that he quelled the executioners by the fire of his eyes; how he sat and glowered, a houseless exile, among the ruins of Carthage—all which things happened to him while he was running from the partisans of Sulla—are among the picturesque episodes of history. There is a tragedy called theWounds of Civil War, written by Lodge, who was born some eight years before Shakspeare, in which the story of Marius is told with some exquisite poetry, but also with some ludicrous additions. The Gaul who is hired to kill Marius, but is frightened by his eyes, talks bad French mingled with bad English, and calls on Jesus in his horror!

54Brutus, ca. xc.

55Florus tells us that there were 2000 Senators and Knights, but that any one was allowed to kill just whom he would. "Quis autem illos potest computare quos in urbe passim quisquis voluit occidit" (lib. iii., ca. 21).

56About £487 10s.In Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities the Attic talent is given as being worth £243 15s.Mommsen quotes the price as 12,000 denarii, which would amount to about the same sum.

57Suetonius speaks of his death. Florus mentions the proscriptions and abdication. Velleius Paterculus is eloquent in describing the horrors of the massacres and confiscation. Dio Cassius refers again and again to the Sullan cruelty. But none of them give a reason for the abdication of Sulla.

58Vol. iii., p.386. I quote from Mr. Dickson's translation, as I do not read German.

59In defending Roscius Amerinus, while Sulla was still in power, he speaks of the Sullan massacres as "pugna Cannensis," a slaughter as foul, as disgraceful, as bloody as had been the defeat at Cannæ.

Back to Index Next