[31] Hor., lib. i., Ode xxii., "Non rura quæ; Liris quieta Mordet aqua taciturnus amnis." [32] Such 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. [33] De Orat., lib. ii., ca. 1. [34] Brutus, ca. lxxxix. [35] It 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. [36] Juvenal, Sat. x., 122, "O fortunatam natam me Consule Romam! Antoni gladios potuit contemnere, si sic Omnia dixisset." [37] De Leg., lib. i., ca. 1. [38] Life and Times of Henry Lord Brougham, written by himself, vol. i., p. 58. [39] I 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. [40] Pro Archia, ca. vii. [41] Brutus, ca. xc. [42] Tacitus, De Oratoribus, xxx. [43] Quintilian, 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. [44] Brutus, ca. xc. [45] Brutus, xci. [46] Quintilian, 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." [47] Brutus, xci. [48] The 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. [49] Quintilian, lib. x., ca. 1.