by _sputatilica?_ I know that _sputa_ is spittle: but what is
_tilica?_ The court laughed at the oddity of a word so strangely
compounded. _Rufio accusante Chritilium, Sisenna defendens dixit
quædam ejus SPUTATILICA esse crimina. Tum Caius Rufius, Circumvenior,
inquit, judices, nisi subvenitis. Sisenna quid dicat nescio; metuo
insidias. SPUTATILICA! quid est hoc?_ Sputa _quid sit, scio_; tilica
_nescio. Maximi risus, De Claris Oratoribus_, s. 260. Whether this
was the same Sisenna, who is said in the former quotation to have been
a correct speaker, does not appear with any degree of certainty.

[h] For the character of Secundus, see s. ii. note [c].

[i] Quintilian says, the merit of a fine writer flourishes after his
death, for envy does not go down to posterity. _Ad posteros enim
virtus durabit, nec perveniet invidia._ Lib. iii. c. 1. Envy is always
sure to pursue living merit; and therefore, Cleo observes to
Alexander, that Hercules and Bacchus were not numbered among the gods,
till they conquered the malignity of their contemporaries. _Nec
Herculem, nec Patrem Liberum, prius dicatos deos, quàm vicissent secum
viventium invidiam._ Quintus Curtius, lib. viii. s. 18. Pliny the
younger has a beautiful epistle on this subject. After praising, in
the highest manner, the various works of Pompeius Saturninus, he says
to his correspondent, Let it be no objection to such an author, that
he is still living. If he flourished in a distant part of the world,
we should not only procure his books, but we should have his picture
in our houses: and shall his fame be tarnished, because we have the
man before our eyes? Shall malignity make us cease to admire him,
because we see him, hear him, esteem and love him? _Neque enim debet
operibus ejus obesse, QUOD VIVIT. An si inter eos, quos nunquam
vidimus, floruisset, non solum libros ejus, verum etiam imagines