History of Famous Orators | Page 9

contrary to law, by refusing to admit any consuls of
plebeian rank, prevailed upon the Senate to protest against the conduct:
of his antagonist; which, if we consider that the Moenian law was not
then in being, was a very bold attempt. We may also conjecture, that M.
Popilius was a man of abilities, who, in the time of his consulship,
when he was solemnizing a public sacrifice in the proper habit of his
office, (for he was also a Flamen Carmentalis) hearing of the mutiny
and insurrection of the people against the Senate, rushed immediately
into the midst of the assembly, covered as he was with his sacerdotal
robes, and quelled the sedition by his authority and the force of his
elocution. I do not pretend to have read that the persons I have

mentioned were then reckoned Orators, or that any fort of reward or
encouragement was given to Eloquence: I only conjecture what appears
very probable. It is also recorded, that C. Flaminius, who, when tribune
of the people proposed the law for dividing the conquered territories of
the Gauls and Piceni among the citizens, and who, after his promotion
to the consulship, was slain near the lake Thrasimenus, became very
popular by the mere force of his address, Quintus Maximus Verrucosus
was likewise reckoned a good Speaker by his cotemporaries; as was
also Quintus Metellus, who, in the second Punic war, was joint consul
with L. Veturius Philo. But the first person we have any certain account
of, who was publicly distinguished as an Orator, and who really
appears to have been such, was M. Cornelius Cethegus; whose
eloquence is attested by Q. Ennius, a voucher of the highest credibility;
since he actually heard him speak, and gave him this character after his
death; so that there is no reason to suspect that he was prompted by the
warmth of his friendship to exceed the bounds of truth. In his ninth
book of Annals, he has mentioned him in the following terms:
"_Additur Orator Corneliu' suaviloquenti Ore Cethegus Marcu',
Tuditano collega, Marci Filius._"
"Add the Orator _M. Cornelius Cethegus, so much admired for his
mellifluent tongue; who was the colleague of Tuditanus, and the son of
Marcus_."
"He expressly calls him an Orator, you see, and attributes to him a
remarkable sweetness of elocution; which, even now a-days, is an
excellence of which few are possessed: for some of our modern Orators
are so insufferably harsh, that they may rather be said to bark than to
speak. But what the Poet so much admires in his friend, may certainly
be considered as one of the principal ornaments of Eloquence. He adds;
" ----_is dictus, ollis popularibus olim, Qui tum vivebant homines,
atque aevum agitabant, Flos delibatus populi_."
"He was called by his cotemporaries, the choicest Flower of the State."
"A very elegant compliment! for as the glory of a man is the strength of

his mental capacity, so the brightest ornament of that is Eloquence; in
which, whoever had the happiness to excel, was beautifully styled, by
the Ancients, the Flower of the State; and, as the Poet immediately
subjoins,
"'--_Suadaeque medulla:'
"the very marrow and quintessence of Persuasion_."
"That which the Greeks call [Greek: Peitho], (i.e. Persuasion) and
which it is the chief business of an Orator to effect, is here called Suada
by Ennius; and of this he commends Cethegus as the quintessence; so
that he makes the Roman Orator to be himself the very substance of
that amiable Goddess, who is said by Eupolis to have dwelt on the lips
of Pericles. This Cethegus was joint-consul with P. Tuditanus in the
second Punic war; at which time also M. Cato was Quaestor, about one
hundred and forty years before I myself was promoted to the consulship;
which circumstance would have been absolutely lost, if it had not been
recorded by Ennius; and the memory of that illustrious citizen, as has
probably been the case of many others, would have been obliterated by
the rust of antiquity. The manner of speaking which was then in vogue,
may easily be collected from the writings of Naevius: for Naevius died,
as we learn from the memoirs of the times, when the persons
above-mentioned were consuls; though Varro, a most accurate
investigator of historical truth, thinks there is a mistake in this, and
fixes the death of Naevius something later. For Plautus died in the
consulship of P. Claudius and L. Porcius, twenty years after the
consulship of the persons we have been speaking of, and when Cato
was Censor. Cato, therefore, must have been younger than Cethegus,
for he was consul nine years after him: but we always consider him as a
person of the remotest antiquity, though he died in the consulship of
Lucius Marcius and M.