The History of Roman Literature: From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus AureliusCruttwell, Charles Thomas
Philosophy
The History of Roman Literature: From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius
Cruttwell, Charles Thomas
Latin literature -- History and criticism
GALBA (180-136 B.C.?) was a man of violence and bad faith, not for a
moment to be compared to Laelius. His infamous cruelty to the Lusitanians,
one of the darkest acts in all history, has covered his name with an
ineffaceable stain. Cato at eighty-five years of age stood forth as his
accuser, but owing to his specious art, and to the disgrace of Rome, he
was acquitted. [21] Cicero speaks of him as _peringeniosus sed non satis
doctus_, and says that he lacked perseverance to improve his speeches from
a literary point of view, being contented with forensic success. Yet he
was the first to apply the right sort of treatment to oratorical art; he
introduced digressions for ornament, for pathos, for information; but as
he never re-wrote his speeches, they remained unfinished, and were soon
forgotten--_Hanc igitur ob caussum videtur Laelii mens spirare etiam in
scriptis, Galbae autem vis occidisse_.
Laelius had embodied in his speeches many of the precepts of the Stoic
philosophy. He had been a friend of the celebrated Panaetius (186-126
B.C.) of Rhodes, to whose lectures he sent his own son-in-law, and
apparently others too. Eloquence now began to borrow philosophic
conceptions; it was no longer merely practical, but admitted of
illustration from various theoretical sources. It became the ambition of
cultivated men to fuse enlightened ideas into the substance of their
oratory. Instances of this are found in SP. MUMMIUS, AEMILIUS LEPIDUS, C.
FANNIUS, and the Augur MUCIUS SCAEVOLA, and perhaps, though it is
difficult to say, in Carbo and the two Gracchi. These are the next names
that claim our notice.
CARBO (164-119 B.C.), the supporter first of the Gracchi, and then of
their murderers, was a man of the most worthless character, but a bold
speaker, and a successful patron. In his time the _quaestiones perpetuae_
[22] were constituted, and thus he had an immense opportunity of enlarging
his forensic experience. He gained the reputation of being the first
pleader of his day; he was fluent, witty, and forcible, and was noted for
the strength and sweetness of his voice. Tacitus also mentions him with
respect in his dialogue _de Oratoribus_. [23]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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