Misc Writings and Speeches, vol 1 | Page 8

singed his face, and
sent him roaring out of the house. There ended my studies. From that
time to this I have had as little to do with Greece as the wine that your
poor old friend Lutatius calls his delicious Samian."
"Well done, Ligarius. I hate a Stoic. I wish Marcus Cato had a beard
that you might singe it for him. The fool talked his two hours in the
Senate yesterday, without changing a muscle of his face. He looked as
savage and as motionless as the mask in which Roscius acted Alecto. I
detest everything connected with him."

"Except his sister, Servilia."
"True. She is a lovely woman."
"They say that you have told her so, Caius"
"So I have."
"And that she was not angry."
"What woman is?"
"Aye--but they say"--
"No matter what they say. Common fame lies like a Greek rhetorician.
You might know so much, Ligarius, without reading the philosophers.
But come, I will introduce you to little dark- eyed Zoe."
"I tell you I can speak no Greek."
"More shame for you. It is high time that you should begin. You will
never have such a charming instructress. Of what was your father
thinking when he sent for an old Stoic with a long beard to teach you?
There is no language-mistress like a handsome woman. When I was at
Athens, I learnt more Greek from a pretty flower-girl in the Peiraeus
than from all the Portico and the Academy. She was no Stoic, Heaven
knows. But come along to Zoe. I will be your interpreter. Woo her in
honest Latin, and I will turn it into elegant Greek between the throws of
dice. I can make love and mind my game at once, as Flaminius can tell
you.
"Well, then, to be plain, Caesar, Flaminius has been talking to me about
plots, and suspicions, and politicians. I never plagued myself with such
things since Sylla's and Marius's days; and then I never could see much
difference between the parties. All that I am sure of is, that those who
meddle with such affairs are generally stabbed or strangled. And,
though I like Greek wine and handsome women, I do not wish to risk
my neck for them. Now, tell me as a friend, Caius--is there no danger?"
"Danger!" repeated Caesar, with a short, fierce, disdainful laugh: "what
danger do you apprehend?"
"That you should best know," said Flaminius; "you are far more
intimate with Catiline than I. But I advise you to be cautious. The
leading men entertain strong suspicions."
Caesar drew up his figure from its ordinary state of graceful relaxation
into an attitude of commanding dignity, and replied in a voice of which
the deep and impassioned melody formed a strange contrast to the
humorous and affected tone of his ordinary conversation. "Let them

suspect. They suspect because they know what they have deserved.
What have they done for Rome?--What for mankind? Ask the
citizens--ask the provinces. Have they had any other object than to
perpetuate their own exclusive power, and to keep us under the yoke of
an oligarchical tyranny, which unites in itself the worst evils of every
other system, and combines more than Athenian turbulence with more
than Persian despotism?"
"Good Gods! Caesar. It is not safe for you to speak, or for us to listen to,
such things, at such a crisis."
"Judge for yourselves what you will hear. I will judge for myself what I
will speak. I was not twenty years old when I defied Lucius Sylla,
surrounded by the spears of legionaries and the daggers of assassins.
Do you suppose that I stand in awe of his paltry successors, who have
inherited a power which they never could have acquired; who would
imitate his proscriptions, though they have never equalled his
conquests?"
"Pompey is almost as little to be trifled with as Sylla. I heard a consular
senator say that, in consequence of the present alarming state of affairs,
he would probably be recalled from the command assigned to him by
the Manilian law."
"Let him come,--the pupil of Sylla's butcheries,--the gleaner of
Lucullus's trophies,--the thief-taker of the Senate."
"For Heaven's sake, Caius!--if you knew what the Consul said"--
"Something about himself, no doubt. Pity that such talents should be
coupled with such cowardice and coxcombry. He is the finest speaker
living,--infinitely superior to what Hortensius was, in his best days;-- a
charming companion, except when he tells over for the twentieth time
all the jokes that he made at Verres's trial. But he is the despicable tool
of a despicable party."
"Your language, Caius, convinces me that the reports which have been
circulated are not without foundation. I will venture to prophesy that
within a few months the republic will pass through a