Authors, Latin -- Biography; Cicero, Marcus Tullius; Statesmen -- Rome -- Biography
We at least have no record of any further speech; nor, as I think, did
he again take the labor of putting into words which should thrill
through all who heard them, not the thoughts but the passionate feelings
of the moment.
I will venture to quote from a contemporary his praise of the
Philippics. Mr. Forsyth says: "Nothing can exceed the beauty of the
language, the rhythmical flow of the periods, and the harmony of the
style. The structure of the Latin language, which enables the speaker or
writer to collocate his words, not, as in English, merely according to
the order of thought, but in the manner best calculated to produce
effect, too often baffles the powers of the translator who seeks to give
the force of the passage without altering the arrangement. Often again,
as is the case with all attempts to present the thoughts of the ancient
in a modern dress, a periphrasis must be used to explain the meaning of
an idea which was instantly caught by the Greek or Roman ear. Many
allusions which flashed like lightning upon the minds of the Senators
must be explained in a parenthesis, and many a home-thrust and caustic
sarcasm are now deprived of their sting, which pierced sharply at the
moment of their utterance some twenty centuries ago.
"But with all such disadvantages I hope that even the English reader
will be able to recognize in these speeches something of the grandeur of
the old Roman eloquence. The noble passages in which Cicero strove to
force his countrymen for very shame to emulate the heroic virtues of
their forefathers, and urged them to brave every danger and welcome
death rather than slavery in the last struggle for freedom, are radiant
with a glory which not even a translation can destroy. And it is
impossible not to admire the genius of the orator whose words did more
than armies toward recovering the lost liberty of Rome."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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