I will
frankly admit to you that I can hardly keep from laughing at some of the
ancients, and from falling asleep at others. I do not single out any of the
common herd, as Canutius, or Arrius, and others in the same sick-room, so to
say, who are content with mere skin and bones. Even Calvus, although he has
left, I think, one-and-twenty volumes, scarcely satisfies me in one or two
short speeches. The rest of the world, I see, does not differ from my
opinion about him; for how few read his speeches against Asitius or Drusus!
Certainly his impeachment of Vatinius, as it is entitled, is in the hands of
students, especially the second of the orations. This, indeed, has a finish
about the phrases and the periods, and suits the ear of the critic, whence
you may infer that even Calvus understood what a better style is, but that
he lacked genius and power rather than the will to speak with more dignity
and grace. What again from the speeches of Caelius do we admire? Why, we
like of these the whole, or at least parts, in which we recognise the polish
and elevation of our own day; but, as for those mean expressions, those gaps
in the structure of the sentences, and uncouth sentiments, they savour of
antiquity. No one, I suppose, is so thoroughly antique as to praise Caelius
simply on the side of his antiqueness. We may, indeed, make allowance for
Caius Julius Cæsar, on account of his vast schemes and many
occupations, for having achieved less in eloquence than his divine genius
demanded from him, and leave him indeed, just as we leave Brutus to his
philosophy. Undoubtedly in his speeches he fell short of his reputation,
even by the admission of his admirers. I hardly suppose that any one reads
Cæsar's speech for Decius the Samnite, or that of Brutus for King
Deiotarus, or other works equally dull and cold, unless it is some one who
also admires their poems. For they did write poems, and sent them to
libraries, with
no better success than Cicero, but with better
luck, because fewer people know that they wrote them.
Asinius too,
though born in a time nearer our own, seems to have studied with the Menenii
and Appii. At any rate he imitated Pacuvius and Accius, not only in his
tragedies but also in his speeches; he is so harsh and dry. Style, like the
human body, is then specially beautiful when, so to say, the veins are not
prominent, and the bones cannot be counted, but when a healthy and sound
blood fills the limbs, and shows itself in the muscles, and the very sinews
become beautiful under a ruddy glow and graceful outline. I will not attack
Corvinus, for it was not indeed his own fault that he did not exhibit the
luxuriance and brightness of our own day. Rather let us note how far the
vigour of his intellect or of his imagination satisfied his critical
faculty.