[f] By a law of the Twelve Tables, a crown, when fairly earned by virtue, was placed on the head of the deceased, and another was ordered to be given to his father. The spirit of the law, Cicero says, plainly intimated, that commendation was a tribute due to departed virtue. A crown was given not only to him who earned it, but also to the father, who gave birth to distinguished merit. _Illa jam significatio est, laudis ornamenta ad mortuos pertinere, quod coronam virtute partam, et ei qui peperisset, et ejus parenti, sine fraude lex impositam esse jubet._ _De Legibus_, lib. ii. s. 24. This is the reward to which Maternus aspires; and, that being granted, he desires, as Horace did before him, to waive the pomp of funeral ceremonies. Absint inani funere næniæ, Luctusque turpes et querimoniæ; Compesce clamorem, ac sepulchri Mitte supervacuos honores. Lib. ii. ode 20. My friends, the funeral sorrow spare, The plaintive song, and tender tear; Nor let the voice of grief profane, With loud laments, the solemn scene; Nor o'er your poet's empty urn With useless idle sorrow mourn. FRANCIS'S HORACE. Section XIV. [a] Vipstanius Messala commanded a legion, and, at the head of it, went over to Vespasian's party in the contention with Vitellius. He was a man of illustrious birth, and equal merit; the only one, says Tacitus, who entered into that war from motives of virtue. _Legioni Vipstanius Messala præerat, claris majoribus, egregius ipse, et qui solus ad id bellum artes bonas attulisset._ _Hist._ lib. iii. s. 9. He was brother to Regulus, the vile informer, who has been mentioned. See Life of Agricola, section 2. note a, and this tract, s. xii. note [b]. Messala, we are told by Tacitus, before he had attained the senatorian age, acquired great fame by pleading the cause of his profligate brother with extraordinary eloquence, and family affection. _Magnam eo die pietatis eloquentiæque famam Vipstanius Messala adeptus est; nondum senatoriâ ætate, ausus pro fratre Aquilio Regulo deprecari._ _Hist._ lib. iv. s. 42. Since Messala has now joined the company, the Dialogue takes a new turn, and, by an easy and natural transition, slides into the question concerning the causes of the decline of eloquence. [b] This is probably the same Asiaticus, who, in the revolt of the provinces of Gaul, fought on the side of VINDEX. See _Hist._ b. ii. s. 94. Biography was, in that evil period, a tribute paid by the friends of departed merit, and the only kind of writing, in which men could dare faintly to utter a sentiment in favour of virtue and public liberty. [c] In the declamations of Seneca and Quintilian, we have abundant examples of these scholastic exercises, which Juvenal has placed in a ridiculous light.