Roman life in the days of Cicero | Page 7

home they would stand by his chair. It must be remembered
that the great man took no payment either from client or from pupil.
But the young Roman had not only to learn law, he must also learn how
to speak-learn, as far as such a thing can be learned, how to be eloquent.
What we in this country call the career of the public man was there
called the career of the orator. With us it is much a matter of chance
whether a man can speak or not. We have had statesmen who wielded
all the power that one man ever can wield in this country who had no
sort of eloquence. We have had others who had this gift in the highest
degree, but never reached even one of the lower offices in the
government. Sometimes a young politician will go to a professional
teacher to get cured of some defect or trick of speech; but that such
teaching is part of the necessary training of a statesman is an idea quite
strange to us. A Roman received it as a matter of course. Of course, like
other things at Rome, it made its way but slowly. Just before the middle
of the second century b.c. the Senate resolved: "Seeing that mention
has been made of certain philosophers and rhetoricians, let Pomponius
the praetor see to it, as he shall hold it to be for the public good, and for
his own honor, that none such be found at Rome." Early in the first
century the censors issued an edict forbidding certain Latin rhetoricians
to teach. One of these censors was the great orator Crassus, greatest of
all the predecessors of Cicero. Cicero puts into his mouth an apology
for this proceeding: "I was not actuated by any hostility to learning or

culture. These Latin rhetoricians were mere ignorant pretenders,
inefficient imitators of their Greek rivals, from whom the Roman youth
were not likely to learn any thing but impudence." In spite of the
censors, however, and in spite of the fashionable belief in Rome that
what was Greek must be far better than what was of native growth, the
Latin teachers rose into favor. "I remember," says Cicero, "when we
were boys, one Lucius Plotinus, who was the first to teach eloquence in
Latin; how, when the studious youth of the capital crowded to hear him
it vexed me much, that I was not permitted to attend him. I was
checked, however, by the opinion of learned men, who held that in this
matter the abilities of the young were more profitably nourished by
exercises in Greek." We are reminded of our own Doctor Johnson, who
declared that he would not disgrace the walls of Westminster Abbey by
an epitaph in English.
The chief part of the instruction which these teachers gave was to
propose imaginary cases involving some legal difficulty for their pupils
to discuss. One or two of these cases may be given.
One day in summer a party of young men from Rome made an
excursion to Ostia, and coming down to the seashore found there some
fishermen who were about to draw in a net. With these they made a
bargain that they should have the draught for a certain sum. The money
was paid. When the net was drawn up no fish were found in it, but a
hamper sewn with thread of gold. The buyers allege this to be theirs as
the draught of the net. The fishermen claim it as not being fish. To
whom did it belong?
Certain slave-dealers, landing a cargo of slaves at Brundisium, and
having with them a very beautiful boy of great value, fearing lest the
custom-house officers should lay hands upon him, put upon him the
bulla and the purple-edged robe that free-born lads were wont to wear.
The deceit was not discovered. But when they came to Rome, and the
matter was talked of, it was maintained that the boy was really free,
seeing that it was his master who of his own free will had given him the
token of freedom.
I shall conclude this chapter with a very pretty picture, which a Roman

poet draws of the life which he led with his teacher in the days when he
was first entering upon manhood. "When first my timid steps lost the
guardianship of the purple stripe, and the bulla of the boy was hung up
for offering to the quaint household gods; when flattering comrades
came about me, and I might cast my eyes without rebuke over the
whole busy street under the shelter of the yet unsullied gown; in the
days when the path is doubtful, and the wanderer knowing naught of
life comes with bewildered soul to the many-branching roads--then