Ex humero portes?
PERSIUS, sat. i. ver. 85.

Theft, says the accuser, to thy charge I lay,
O Pedius. What does gentle Pedius say?
Studious to please the genius of the times,
With periods, points, and tropes, he slurs his crimes.
He lards with flourishes his long harangue:
'Tis fine, say'st thou. What! to be prais'd, and hang?
Effeminate Roman! shall such stuff prevail,
To tickle thee, and make thee wag thy tail?
Say, should a shipwreck'd sailor sing his woe,
Wouldst thou be mov'd to pity, and bestow
An alms? What's more prepost'rous than to see
A merry beggar? wit in misery!
DRYDEN'S PERSIUS.

[f] For Cassius Severus, see s. xix. note [a].

[g] Gabinianus was a teacher of rhetoric in the reign of Vespasian.
Eusebius, in his Chronicon, eighth of Vespasian, says that Gabinianus,
a celebrated rhetorician, was a teacher of eloquence in Gaul.
_Gabinianus, celeberrimi nominis rhetor, in Galliâ docuit._ His
admirers deemed him another Cicero, and, after him, all such orators
were called CICERONES GABISTIANI.


Section XXVIII.

[a] In order to brand and stigmatise the Roman matrons who committed