A Dialogue Concerning Oratory, Or The Causes Of Corrupt Eloquence - The Works Of Cornelius Tacitus, Volume 8 (of 8); With An Essay On - His Life And Genius, Notes, Supplements by Caius Cornelius Tacitus
page 174 of 259 (67%)
page 174 of 259 (67%)
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Section XXXIV.
[a] There is in this place a trifling mistake, either in Messala, the speaker, or in the copyists. Crassus was born A.U.C. 614. See s. xviii. note [f]. Papirius Carbo, the person accused, was consul A.U.C. 634, and the prosecution was in the following year, when Crassus expressly says, that he was then only one and twenty. _Quippe qui omnium maturrimè ad publicas causas accesserim, annosque natus UNUM ET VIGINTI, nobilissimum hominem et eloquentissimum in judicium vocârim._ Cicero, _De Orat._ lib. iii. s. 74. Pliny the consul was another instance of early pleading. He says himself, that he began his career in the forum at the age of nineteen, and, after long practice, he could only see the functions of an orator as it were in a mist. _Undevicessimo ætatis anno dicere in foro cÅpi, et nunc demum, quid præstare debeat orator, adhuc tamen per caliginem video._ Lib. v. epist. 8. Quintilian relates of Cæsar, Calvus, and Pollio, that they all three appeared at the bar, long before they arrived at their quæstorian age, which was seven and twenty. _Calvus, Cæsar, Pollio, multum ante quæstoriam omnes ætatem gravissima judicia susceperunt._ Quintilian, lib. xii. cap. 6. Section XXXV. [a] Lipsius, in his note on this passage, says, that he once thought the word _scena_ in the text ought to be changed to _schola_; but he afterwards saw his mistake. The place of fictitious declamation and spurious eloquence, where the teachers played a ridiculous part, was properly called a theatrical scene. |
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