In the former he was equal to the weight and dignity of his
subject: you clearly saw that he believed what he said.
subject: you clearly saw that he believed what he said.
Tacitus
_Cæsare interfecto, statim cruentum
altè extollens Marcus Brutus pugionem, Ciceronem nominatim exclamavit,
atque ei recuperatam libertatem est gratulatus. _ Philippic, ii. s. 28.
The late Doctor Akenside has retouched this passage with all the
colours of a sublime imagination.
Look then abroad through nature, through the range
Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres,
Wheeling unshaken through the void immense,
And speak, O man! does this capacious scene
With half that kindling majesty dilate
Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose
Refulgent from the stroke of Cæsar's fate,
Amid the crowd of patriots, and his arm
Aloft extending, like eternal Jove
When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud
On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel,
And bade the Father of his Country hail!
For, lo! the tyrant prostrate in the dust,
And Rome again is free.
PLEASURES OF IMAG. b. i. ver. 487.
According to Quintilian, Brutus was fitter for philosophical
speculations, and books of moral theory, than for the career of public
oratory.
In the former he was equal to the weight and dignity of his
subject: you clearly saw that he believed what he said. _Egregius vero
multoque quam in orationibus præstantior Brutus, suffecit ponderi
rerum; scias eum sentire quæ dicit. _ Quintil. lib. x. cap. 1.
For Asinius Pollio and Messala, see section xii. note [e].
[e] Hirtius and Pansa were consuls A. U. C. 711; before the Christian
æra 43. In this year, the famous _triple league_, called the
TRIUMVIRATE, was formed between Augustus, Lepidus, and Antony. The
_proscription_, or the list of those who were doomed to die for the
crime of adhering to the cause of liberty, was also settled, and
Cicero was one of the number. A band of assassins went in quest of him
to his villa, called _Astura_, near the sea-shore.
altè extollens Marcus Brutus pugionem, Ciceronem nominatim exclamavit,
atque ei recuperatam libertatem est gratulatus. _ Philippic, ii. s. 28.
The late Doctor Akenside has retouched this passage with all the
colours of a sublime imagination.
Look then abroad through nature, through the range
Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres,
Wheeling unshaken through the void immense,
And speak, O man! does this capacious scene
With half that kindling majesty dilate
Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose
Refulgent from the stroke of Cæsar's fate,
Amid the crowd of patriots, and his arm
Aloft extending, like eternal Jove
When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud
On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel,
And bade the Father of his Country hail!
For, lo! the tyrant prostrate in the dust,
And Rome again is free.
PLEASURES OF IMAG. b. i. ver. 487.
According to Quintilian, Brutus was fitter for philosophical
speculations, and books of moral theory, than for the career of public
oratory.
In the former he was equal to the weight and dignity of his
subject: you clearly saw that he believed what he said. _Egregius vero
multoque quam in orationibus præstantior Brutus, suffecit ponderi
rerum; scias eum sentire quæ dicit. _ Quintil. lib. x. cap. 1.
For Asinius Pollio and Messala, see section xii. note [e].
[e] Hirtius and Pansa were consuls A. U. C. 711; before the Christian
æra 43. In this year, the famous _triple league_, called the
TRIUMVIRATE, was formed between Augustus, Lepidus, and Antony. The
_proscription_, or the list of those who were doomed to die for the
crime of adhering to the cause of liberty, was also settled, and
Cicero was one of the number. A band of assassins went in quest of him
to his villa, called _Astura_, near the sea-shore.
