Since Messala has now joined the company, the
Dialogue takes a new turn, and, by an easy and natural transition,
slides into the question concerning the causes of the decline of
eloquence.
Dialogue takes a new turn, and, by an easy and natural transition,
slides into the question concerning the causes of the decline of
eloquence.
Tacitus
iii.
s.
9.
He
was brother to Regulus, the vile informer, who has been mentioned. See
Life of Agricola, section 2. note a, and this tract, s. xii. note [b].
Messala, we are told by Tacitus, before he had attained the senatorian
age, acquired great fame by pleading the cause of his profligate
brother with extraordinary eloquence, and family affection. _Magnam eo
die pietatis eloquentiæque famam Vipstanius Messala adeptus est;
nondum senatoriâ ætate, ausus pro fratre Aquilio Regulo deprecari. _
_Hist. _ lib. iv. s. 42.
Since Messala has now joined the company, the
Dialogue takes a new turn, and, by an easy and natural transition,
slides into the question concerning the causes of the decline of
eloquence.
[b] This is probably the same Asiaticus, who, in the revolt of the
provinces of Gaul, fought on the side of VINDEX. See _Hist. _ b. ii. s.
94. Biography was, in that evil period, a tribute paid by the friends
of departed merit, and the only kind of writing, in which men could
dare faintly to utter a sentiment in favour of virtue and public
liberty.
[c] In the declamations of Seneca and Quintilian, we have abundant
examples of these scholastic exercises, which Juvenal has placed in a
ridiculous light.
Et nos ergo manum ferulæ subduximus, et nos
Consilium dedimus Syllæ, privatus ut altum
Dormiret.
Sat. i. ver. 15.
Provok'd by these incorrigible fools,
I left declaiming in pedantic schools;
Where, with men-boys, I strove to get renown,
Advising Sylla to a private gown.
DRYDEN'S JUVENAL.
was brother to Regulus, the vile informer, who has been mentioned. See
Life of Agricola, section 2. note a, and this tract, s. xii. note [b].
Messala, we are told by Tacitus, before he had attained the senatorian
age, acquired great fame by pleading the cause of his profligate
brother with extraordinary eloquence, and family affection. _Magnam eo
die pietatis eloquentiæque famam Vipstanius Messala adeptus est;
nondum senatoriâ ætate, ausus pro fratre Aquilio Regulo deprecari. _
_Hist. _ lib. iv. s. 42.
Since Messala has now joined the company, the
Dialogue takes a new turn, and, by an easy and natural transition,
slides into the question concerning the causes of the decline of
eloquence.
[b] This is probably the same Asiaticus, who, in the revolt of the
provinces of Gaul, fought on the side of VINDEX. See _Hist. _ b. ii. s.
94. Biography was, in that evil period, a tribute paid by the friends
of departed merit, and the only kind of writing, in which men could
dare faintly to utter a sentiment in favour of virtue and public
liberty.
[c] In the declamations of Seneca and Quintilian, we have abundant
examples of these scholastic exercises, which Juvenal has placed in a
ridiculous light.
Et nos ergo manum ferulæ subduximus, et nos
Consilium dedimus Syllæ, privatus ut altum
Dormiret.
Sat. i. ver. 15.
Provok'd by these incorrigible fools,
I left declaiming in pedantic schools;
Where, with men-boys, I strove to get renown,
Advising Sylla to a private gown.
DRYDEN'S JUVENAL.
