Chapter XXII: Section XX

[a] Doctor Middleton says, "Of the seven excellent orations, which now remain on the subject of VERRES, the first two only were spoken; the one called, _The Divination_; the other, _The first Action_, which is nothing more than a general preface to the whole cause. The other five were published afterwards, as they were prepared and intended to be spoken, if Verres had made a regular defence: for as this was the only cause in which Cicero had yet been engaged, or ever designed to be engaged, as _an accuser_, so he was willing to leave those orations as a specimen of his abilities in that way, and the _pattern of a just and diligent impeachment of a great and corrupt magistrate." Life of Cicero_, vol. i. p. 86, 4to edit.

[b] The Digest enumerates a multitude of rules concerning _exceptions_ to persons, things, the form of the action, the niceties of pleading, and, as the phrase is, motions in arrest of judgement. _Formula_, was the set of words necessary to be used in the pleadings. See the _Digest_, lib. xliv. tit. 1. _De Exceptionibus, Præscriptionibus, et Præjudiciis_. See also Cujacius, _observat._ xxiii.

[c] The oration for Marcus Tullius is highly praised by Macrobius, but is not to be found in Cicero's works. The oration for Aulus Cæcina is still extant. The cause was about the right of succession to a private estate, which depended on a subtle point of law, arising from the interpretation of the prætor's interdict. It shews Cicero's exact knowledge and skill in the civil law, and that his public character and employment gave no interruption to his usual diligence in pleading causes. Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, vol. i. p. 116, 4to edit.

[d] Roscius, in the last period of the republic, was the comedian, whom all Rome admired for his talents. The great esteemed and loved him for his morals. Æsop, the tragedian, was his contemporary. Horace, in the epistle to Augustus, has mentioned them both with their proper and distinctive qualities.

----Ea cum reprehendere coner
Quæ GRAVIS ÆSOPUS, quæ DOCTUS ROSCIUS egit.

A certain measured gravity of elocution being requisite in tragedy, that quality is assigned to the former, and the latter is called DOCTUS, because he was a complete master of his art; so truly learned in the principles of his profession, that he possessed, in a wonderful degree, the secret charm that gave inimitable graces to his voice and action. Quintilian, in a few words, has given a commentary on the passage in Horace. Grief, he says, is expressed by slow and deliberate accents; for that reason, Æsop spoke with gravity; Roscius with quickness; the former being a tragedian, the latter a comedian. _Plus autem affectus habent lentiora; ideoque Roscius citatior, Æsopus gravior fuit, quod ille comoedias, his tragoedias egit._ Lib. xi. cap. 1. Cicero was the great friend and patron of Roscius. An elegant oration in his behalf is still extant. The cause was this: One FANNIUS had made over to Roscius a young slave, to be formed by him to the stage, on condition of a partnership in the profits which the slave should acquire by acting. The slave was afterwards killed. Roscius prosecuted the murderer for damages, and obtained, by composition, a little farm, worth about eight hundred pounds, for his particular share. FANNIUS also sued separately, and was supposed to have gained as much; but, pretending to have recovered nothing, he sued ROSCIUS for the moiety of what he had received. One cannot but observe, says Dr. Middleton, from Cicero's pleading, the wonderful esteem and reputation in which Roscius then flourished. Has Roscius, says he, defrauded his partner? Can such a stain stick upon such a man; a man who, I speak it with confidence, has more integrity than skill, more veracity than experience? a man whom the people of Rome know to be a better citizen than he is an actor; and, while he makes the first figure on the stage for his art, is worthy of a seat in the senate for his virtue. _Quem populus Romanus meliorem virum quam histrionem esse arbitratur; qui ita dignissimus est scená propter artificium, ut dignissimus sit curiá propter abstinentiam. Pro Roscio Comoedo_, s. 17 In another place, Cicero says, he was such an artist, as to seem the only one fit to appear on the stage; yet such a man, as to seem the only one who should not come upon it at all. _Cum artifex ejusmodi sit, ut solus dignus videatur esse qui in scená spectetur; tum vir ejusmodi est, ut solus dignus videatur, qui eo non accedat. Pro Publ. Quinctio_, s. 78. What Cicero has said in his pleadings might be thought oratorical, introduced merely to serve the cause, if we did not find the comedian praised with equal warmth in the dialogue DE ORATORE. It is there said of Roscius, that every thing he did was perfect in the kind, and executed with consummate grace, with a secret charm, that touched, affected, and delighted the whole audience: insomuch, that when a man excelled in any other profession, it was grown into a proverb to call him, THE ROSCIUS OF HIS ART. _Videtisne, quam nihil ab eo nisi perfectè, nihil nisi cum summâ venustate fiat? nihil, nisi ita ut deceat, et uti omnes moveat, atque delectet? Itaque hoc jam diu est consecutus, ut in quo quisque artificio excelleret, is in suo genere Roscius diceretur._ _De Orat._ lib. i. s. 130. After so much honourable testimony, one cannot but wonder why the DOCTUS ROSCIUS of Horace is mentioned in this Dialogue with an air of disparagement. It may be, that APER, the speaker in this passage, was determined to degrade the orators of antiquity; and the comedian was, therefore, to expect no quarter. Dacier, in his notes on the Epistle to Augustus, observes that Roscius wrote a book, in which he undertook to prove to Cicero, that in all the stores of eloquence there were not so many different expressions for one and the same thing, as in the dramatic art there were modes of action, and casts of countenance, to mark the sentiment, and convey it to the mind with its due degree of emotion. It is to be lamented that such a book has not come down to us. It would, perhaps, be more valuable than the best treatise of rhetoric.

Ambivius Turpio acted in most of Terence's plays, and seems to have been a manager of the theatre. Cicero, in the treatise _De Senectute_, says: He, who sat near him in the first rows, received the greatest pleasure; but still, those, who were at the further end of the theatre, were delighted with him. _Turpione Ambivio magis delectatur, qui in primâ caveâ spectat; delectatur tamen etiam qui in ultimâ._

[e] ACCIUS and PACUVIUS flourished at Rome about the middle of the sixth century from the foundation of the city. Accius, according to Horace, was held to be a poet of a sublime genius, and Pacuvius (who lived to be ninety years old) was respected for his age and profound learning.

Ambigitur quoties uter utro sit prior, aufert
PACUVIUS docti famam senis, ACCIUS alti.
EPIST. AD AUG. ver. 56.

Velleius Paterculus says, that ACCIUS was thought equal to the best writers of the Greek tragedy. He had not, indeed, the diligent touches of the polishing hand, which we see in the poets of Athens, but he had more spirit and vigour. _Accius usque in Græcorum comparationem erectus. In illis limæ in hoc penè plus videri fuisse sanguinis._ He is often quoted by Cicero in his book _De Naturâ Deorum_. But after all, it is from the great critic, who gives the best account of the Roman poets, orators, and historians, that we are to take the genuine character of ACCIUS and PACUVIUS, since their works are lost in the general mass of ancient literature. They were both excellent tragic poets: elevation of sentiment, grandeur of expression, and dignity of character, stamped a value on their productions; and yet, we must not expect to find the grace and elegance of genuine composition. To give the finishing hand to their works was not their practice: the defect, however, is not to be imputed to them; it was the vice of the age. Force and dignity are the characteristics of ACCIUS; while the critics, who wish to be thought deep and profound, admire PACUVIUS for his extensive learning. _Tragoediæ scriptores Accius atque Pacuvius, clarissimi sententiarum verborumque pondere, et auctoritate personarum. Cæterum nitor, et summa in excolendis operibus manus, magis videri potest temporibus, quam ipsis defuisse. Virium tamen Accio plus tribuitur; Pacuvium videri doctiorem, qui esse docti affectant, volunt._ Quintil. lib. x. cap. 1. It was the fashion in Horace's time to prefer the writers of the old school to the new race that gave so much lustre to the Augustan age. In opposition to such erroneous criticism, the poet pronounces a decided judgement, which seems to be confirmed by the opinion of Quintilian.

Si quædam nimis antiquè, si pleraque durè
Dicere credit eos, ignavè multa fatetur,
Et sapit, et mecum facit, et Jove judicat æquo.
EPIST. AD AUGUST. ver. 66.

But that sometimes their style uncouth appears,
And their harsh numbers rudely hurt our ears;
Or that full flatly flows the languid line,
He, who owns this, has Jove's assent and mine.
FRANCIS'S HORACE.

[f] Lucan was nephew to Seneca, and a poet of great celebrity. He was born, in the reign of Caligula, at Corduba in Spain. His superior genius made Nero his mortal enemy. He was put to death by that inhuman emperor, A.U.C. 818, in the twenty-seventh year of his age. See the _Annals_, b. xv. s. 70. As a writer, Quintilian says, that he possessed an ardent genius, impetuous, rapid, and remarkable for the vigour of his sentiments: but he chooses to class him with the orators, rather than the poets. _Lucanus ardens, et concitatus, et sententiis clarissimus; et, ut dicam quod sentio, magis oratoribus quam poetis annumerandus._ Lib. x. cap. 1. Scaliger, on the other hand, contends that Lucan was a true poet, and that the critics do but trifle, when they object that he wrote history, not an epic poem. STRADA in his Prolusions, has given, among other imitations, a narrative in Lucan's manner; and, though he thinks that poet has not the skill of Virgil, he places him on the summit of Parnassus, managing his Pegasus with difficulty, often in danger of falling from the ridge of a precipice, yet delighting his reader with the pleasure of seeing him escape. This is the true character of Lucan. The love of liberty was his ruling passion. It is but justice to add, that his sentiments, when free from _antithesis_ and the _Ovidian_ manner, are not excelled by any poet of antiquity. From him, as well as from Virgil and Horace, the orator is required to cull such passages as will help to enrich his discourse; and the practice is recommended by Quintilian, who observes, that Cicero, Asinius Pollio, and others, frequently cited verses from Ennius, Accius, Pacuvius, and Terence, in order to grace their speeches with polite literature, and enliven the imagination of their hearers. By those poetic insertions, the ear is relieved from the harsh monotony of the forum; and the poets, cited occasionally, serve by their authority to establish the proposition advanced by the speaker. _Nam præcipue quidem apud Ciceronem, frequenter tamen apud Asinium etiam, et cæteros, qui sunt proximi, vidimus ENNII, ACCII, PACUVII, TERENTII et aliorum inseri versus, summâ non eruditionis modò gratiâ, sed etiam jucunditatis; cum poeticis voluptatibus aures a forensi asperitate respirent, quibus accedit non mediocris utilitas, cum sententiis eorum, velut quibusdam testimoniis, quæ proposuere confirmant._ Quintil. lib. i. cap. 8.