He possessed a wonderful dignity of language, could enliven his
discourse with wit and pleasantry, never descending to vulgar humour;
refined, and polished, without a tincture of scurrility.
discourse with wit and pleasantry, never descending to vulgar humour;
refined, and polished, without a tincture of scurrility.
Tacitus
11.
[f] Lucius Licinius Crassus is often mentioned, and always to his
advantage, by Cicero DE CLARIS ORATORIBUS. He was born, as appears in
that treatise (sect. 161), during the consulship of Lælius and Cæpio,
A. U. C. 614: he was contemporary with Antonius, the celebrated orator,
and father of Antony the triumvir. Crassus was about four and thirty
years older than Cicero. When Philippus the consul shewed himself
disposed to encroach on the privileges of the senate, and, in the
presence of that body, offered indignities to Licinius Crassus, the
orator, as Cicero informs us, broke out in a blaze of eloquence
against that violent outrage, concluding with that remarkable
sentence: He shall not be to me A CONSUL, to whom I am not A SENATOR.
_Non es mihi consul, quia nec ego tibi senator sum. _ See _Valerius
Maximus_, lib. xli. cap. 2. Cicero has given his oratorical character.
He possessed a wonderful dignity of language, could enliven his
discourse with wit and pleasantry, never descending to vulgar humour;
refined, and polished, without a tincture of scurrility. He preserved
the true Latin idiom; in his selection of words accurate, with
apparent facility; no stiffness, no affectation appeared; in his train
of reasoning always clear and methodical; and, when the cause hinged
upon a question of law, or the moral distinctions of good and evil, no
man possessed such a fund of argument, and happy illustration. _Crasso
nihil statuo fieri potuisse perfectius: erat summa gravitas; erat cum
gravitate junctus facetiarum et urbanitatis oratorius, non scurrilis,
lepos. Latinè loquendi accurata, et, sine molestiâ, diligens
elegantia; in disserendo mira explicatio; cum de jure civili, cum de
æquo et bono disputaretur, argumentorum et similitudinum copia. _ _De
Claris Orat. _ s. 143. In Cicero's books DE ORATORE, Licinius Crassus
supports a capital part in the dialogue; but in the opening of the
third book, we have a pathetic account of his death, written, as the
Italians say, _con amore_. Crassus returned from his villa, where the
dialogue passed, to take part in the debate against Philippus the
consul, who had declared to an assembly of the people, that he was
obliged to seek new counsellors, for with such a senate he could not
conduct the affairs of the commonwealth. The conduct of Crassus, upon
that occasion, has been mentioned already. The vehemence, with which
he exerted himself, threw him into a violent fever, and, on the
seventh day following, put a period to his life. Then, says Cicero,
that tuneful swan expired: we hoped once more to hear the melody of
his voice, and went, in that expectation, to the senate-house; but all
that remained was to gaze on the spot where that eloquent orator spoke
for the last time in the service of his country. _Illud immortalitate
dignum ingenium, illa humanitas, illa virtus Lucii Crassi morte
extincta subitâ est, vix diebus decem post eum diem, qui hoc et
superiore libra continetur. Illa tanquam cycnea fuit divini hominis
vox, et oratio, quam quasi expectantes, post ejus interitum veniebamus
in curiam, ut vestigium illud ipsum, in quo ille postremum
institisset, contueremur. _ _De Orat. _ lib, iii.
[f] Lucius Licinius Crassus is often mentioned, and always to his
advantage, by Cicero DE CLARIS ORATORIBUS. He was born, as appears in
that treatise (sect. 161), during the consulship of Lælius and Cæpio,
A. U. C. 614: he was contemporary with Antonius, the celebrated orator,
and father of Antony the triumvir. Crassus was about four and thirty
years older than Cicero. When Philippus the consul shewed himself
disposed to encroach on the privileges of the senate, and, in the
presence of that body, offered indignities to Licinius Crassus, the
orator, as Cicero informs us, broke out in a blaze of eloquence
against that violent outrage, concluding with that remarkable
sentence: He shall not be to me A CONSUL, to whom I am not A SENATOR.
_Non es mihi consul, quia nec ego tibi senator sum. _ See _Valerius
Maximus_, lib. xli. cap. 2. Cicero has given his oratorical character.
He possessed a wonderful dignity of language, could enliven his
discourse with wit and pleasantry, never descending to vulgar humour;
refined, and polished, without a tincture of scurrility. He preserved
the true Latin idiom; in his selection of words accurate, with
apparent facility; no stiffness, no affectation appeared; in his train
of reasoning always clear and methodical; and, when the cause hinged
upon a question of law, or the moral distinctions of good and evil, no
man possessed such a fund of argument, and happy illustration. _Crasso
nihil statuo fieri potuisse perfectius: erat summa gravitas; erat cum
gravitate junctus facetiarum et urbanitatis oratorius, non scurrilis,
lepos. Latinè loquendi accurata, et, sine molestiâ, diligens
elegantia; in disserendo mira explicatio; cum de jure civili, cum de
æquo et bono disputaretur, argumentorum et similitudinum copia. _ _De
Claris Orat. _ s. 143. In Cicero's books DE ORATORE, Licinius Crassus
supports a capital part in the dialogue; but in the opening of the
third book, we have a pathetic account of his death, written, as the
Italians say, _con amore_. Crassus returned from his villa, where the
dialogue passed, to take part in the debate against Philippus the
consul, who had declared to an assembly of the people, that he was
obliged to seek new counsellors, for with such a senate he could not
conduct the affairs of the commonwealth. The conduct of Crassus, upon
that occasion, has been mentioned already. The vehemence, with which
he exerted himself, threw him into a violent fever, and, on the
seventh day following, put a period to his life. Then, says Cicero,
that tuneful swan expired: we hoped once more to hear the melody of
his voice, and went, in that expectation, to the senate-house; but all
that remained was to gaze on the spot where that eloquent orator spoke
for the last time in the service of his country. _Illud immortalitate
dignum ingenium, illa humanitas, illa virtus Lucii Crassi morte
extincta subitâ est, vix diebus decem post eum diem, qui hoc et
superiore libra continetur. Illa tanquam cycnea fuit divini hominis
vox, et oratio, quam quasi expectantes, post ejus interitum veniebamus
in curiam, ut vestigium illud ipsum, in quo ille postremum
institisset, contueremur. _ _De Orat. _ lib, iii.
