Marcus Varro is the only man, who, during his lifetime, saw his own statue erected. This was placed in the first public library that was ever built, and which was formed by Asinius Pollio with the spoils of our enemies. The fact of this distinction being conferred upon him by one who was in the first rank, both as an orator and a citizen, and at a time, too, when there was so great a number of men distinguished for their genius, was not less honorable to him, in my opinion, than the naval crown which Pompey bestowed upon him in the war against the pirates. The instances that follow among the Romans, if I were to attempt to reckon them, would be found to be innumerable; for it is the fact that this one nation has furnished a greater number of distinguished men in every branch than all the countries of the world taken together.[77] But what atonement could I offer to thee, Marcus Tullius Cicero, were I to be silent respecting thy name? or on what ground am I to pronounce thee especially preëminent? On what, indeed, that can be more convincing than the most abundant testimony that was offered in thy favor by the whole Roman people? Thou speakest, and the tribes surrender the Agrarian law, or, in other words, their very subsistence; thou advisest them to do so, and they pardon Roscius, the author of the law for the regulation of the theatres, and, without any feelings of resentment, allow a mark to be put upon themselves by allotting them an inferior seat; thou entreatest, and the sons of proscribed men blush at having canvassed for public honors: before thy genius Catiline took to flight, and it was thou who didst proscribe Marcus Antonius. Hail, then, to thee, who wast the first of all to receive the title of Father of thy country, who wast the first of all, while wearing the toga, to merit a triumph, and who didst obtain the laurel for oratory. Great father, thou, of eloquence and of Latin literature! as the Dictator Cæsar, once thy enemy, wrote in testimony of thee,[78] thou didst require a laurel superior to every triumph! How far greater and more glorious to have enlarged so immeasurably the boundaries of the Roman genius, than those of its sway! Book IV. THE NATURE OF TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS. CHAPTER I. ELEPHANTS; THEIR CAPACITY.