From The Dialogue of the Orators (the scene is the middle of the reign of Vespasian, emperor 69-79 CE)
(2)
It was the day following that on which Curiatius Maternus had given a reading of his Cato, when court circles were said to have taken umbrage at the way in which he had thrown himself in the play heart and soul into the role of Cato, with never a thought of himself. The thing was the talk of the town, and Maternus had a call from Marcus Aper and Julius Secundus, then the leading lights of the bar at Rome.
Of both of them I can say that—being passionately fond of rhetorical studies, and fired with youthful enthusiasm—I made a practice not only of listening attentively to their pleadings in court, but also of attaching myself to them at their homes and attending them out of doors. I wanted to drink in their casual talk as well, and their discussions, and the confidences of their esoteric discourse, notwithstanding the many spiteful critics who held that Secundus was not a ready speaker, and that Aper’s title to oratorical renown was based on ability and inborn talent rather than on any literary training.
The fact is that Secundus was the master of a style that was idiomatic and precise and fluent enough for his purpose, while Aper was a man of all-round learning, who as regards literature was not so much ignorant as disdainful, believing that his industry and application would redound more to his credit if it were thought that his natural talents did not need the prop of any extraneous accomplishments.
(3)
Well, on entering Maternus’s room we found him sitting with a book in front of him—the very same from which he had given his reading on the previous day; whereupon Secundus said, “Has the talk of your detractors no terrors for you, Maternus? Does it not make you feel less enamoured of that exasperating Cato of yours? Or is it with the idea of going carefully over it that you have taken your drama in hand, intending to cut out any passages that may have given a handle for misrepresentation, and then to publish your Cato, if not better than it was at least not so dangerous?”
To this he rejoined, “The reading of it will show you what Maternus considered his duty to himself: you will find it just as you heard it read. Yes, and if Cato has left anything unsaid, at my next reading it shall be supplied in my Thyestes; for so I call the tragedy which I have already planned and of which I have the outline in my head. It is just because I want to get the first play off my hands and to throw myself whole-heartedly into my new theme that I am hurrying to get this work ready for publication.”
“So then,” said Aper, “you have not had enough of those tragedies of yours? Otherwise you would not turn your back on your profession of speaker and pleader, and spend your whole time on plays. The other day it was Medea, and now it is Thyestes; and all the while you are being summoned to the forum by the long list of your friends’ cases, and the equally long list of colonies and country towns for which you ought to act. Why, you could hardly meet all those calls even if you had not so gratuitously shouldered this new occupation of lumping in with Greekling legends a Domitius and a Cato, that is to say, stories from our own annals too, with Roman names.”
2.: Nam postero die quam Curiatius Maternus Catonem recitaverat, cum offendisse potentium animos diceretur, tamquam in eo tragoediae argumento sui oblitus tantum Catonem cogitasset, eaque de re per urbem frequens sermo haberetur, venerunt ad eum Marcus Aper et Iulius Secundus, celeberrima tum ingenia fori nostri, quos ego utrosque non modo in iudiciis studiose audiebam, sed domi quoque et in publico adsectabar mira studiorum cupiditate et quodam ardore iuvenili, ut fabulas quoque eorum et disputationes et arcana semotae dictionis penitus exciperem, quamvis maligne plerique opinarentur nec Secundo promptum esse sermonem et Aprum ingenio potius et vi naturae quam institutione et
(2) litteris famam eloquentiae consecutum. Nam et Secundo purus et pressus et, in quantum satis erat, profluens sermo non defuit, et Aper omni eruditione imbutus contemnebat potius litteras quam nesciebat, tamquam maiorem industriae et laboris gloriam habiturus si ingenium eius nullis alienarum artium adminiculis inniti videretur.
3.: Igitur ut intravimus cubiculum Materni, sedentem ipsum<que> quem pridie recitaverat librum inter manus habentem deprehendimus.
(2) Tum Secundus “Nihilne te” inquit, “Materne, fabulae malignorum terrent quo minus offensas Catonis tui ames? An ideo librum istum adprehendisti ut diligentius retractares et, sublatis si qua pravae interpretationi materiam dederunt, emitteres Catonem non quidem meliorem, sed tamen securiorem?”
(3) Tum ille: “Leges tu quid Maternus sibi debuerit, et adgnosces quae audisti. Quod si qua omisit Cato, sequenti recitatione Thyestes dicet; hanc enim tragoediam disposui iam et intra me ipse formavi. Atque ideo maturare libri huius editionem festino, ut dimissa priore cura novae cogitationi toto pectore incumbam.”
(4) “Adeo te tragoediae istae non satiant,” inquit Aper, “quo minus omissis orationum et causarum studiis omne tempus modo circa Medeam, ecce nunc circa Thyestem consumas? cum te tot amicorum causae, tot coloniarum et municipiorum clientelae in forum vocent, quibus vix suffeceris, etiam si non novum tibi ipse negotium importasses, Domitium et Catonem, id est nostras quoque historias et Romana nomina, Graeculorum fabulis adgregare.”
(2)
It was the day following that on which Curiatius Maternus had given a reading of his Cato, when court circles were said to have taken umbrage at the way in which he had thrown himself in the play heart and soul into the role of Cato, with never a thought of himself. The thing was the talk of the town, and Maternus had a call from Marcus Aper and Julius Secundus, then the leading lights of the bar at Rome.
Of both of them I can say that—being passionately fond of rhetorical studies, and fired with youthful enthusiasm—I made a practice not only of listening attentively to their pleadings in court, but also of attaching myself to them at their homes and attending them out of doors. I wanted to drink in their casual talk as well, and their discussions, and the confidences of their esoteric discourse, notwithstanding the many spiteful critics who held that Secundus was not a ready speaker, and that Aper’s title to oratorical renown was based on ability and inborn talent rather than on any literary training.
The fact is that Secundus was the master of a style that was idiomatic and precise and fluent enough for his purpose, while Aper was a man of all-round learning, who as regards literature was not so much ignorant as disdainful, believing that his industry and application would redound more to his credit if it were thought that his natural talents did not need the prop of any extraneous accomplishments.
(3)
Well, on entering Maternus’s room we found him sitting with a book in front of him—the very same from which he had given his reading on the previous day; whereupon Secundus said, “Has the talk of your detractors no terrors for you, Maternus? Does it not make you feel less enamoured of that exasperating Cato of yours? Or is it with the idea of going carefully over it that you have taken your drama in hand, intending to cut out any passages that may have given a handle for misrepresentation, and then to publish your Cato, if not better than it was at least not so dangerous?”
To this he rejoined, “The reading of it will show you what Maternus considered his duty to himself: you will find it just as you heard it read. Yes, and if Cato has left anything unsaid, at my next reading it shall be supplied in my Thyestes; for so I call the tragedy which I have already planned and of which I have the outline in my head. It is just because I want to get the first play off my hands and to throw myself whole-heartedly into my new theme that I am hurrying to get this work ready for publication.”
“So then,” said Aper, “you have not had enough of those tragedies of yours? Otherwise you would not turn your back on your profession of speaker and pleader, and spend your whole time on plays. The other day it was Medea, and now it is Thyestes; and all the while you are being summoned to the forum by the long list of your friends’ cases, and the equally long list of colonies and country towns for which you ought to act. Why, you could hardly meet all those calls even if you had not so gratuitously shouldered this new occupation of lumping in with Greekling legends a Domitius and a Cato, that is to say, stories from our own annals too, with Roman names.”
2.: Nam postero die quam Curiatius Maternus Catonem recitaverat, cum offendisse potentium animos diceretur, tamquam in eo tragoediae argumento sui oblitus tantum Catonem cogitasset, eaque de re per urbem frequens sermo haberetur, venerunt ad eum Marcus Aper et Iulius Secundus, celeberrima tum ingenia fori nostri, quos ego utrosque non modo in iudiciis studiose audiebam, sed domi quoque et in publico adsectabar mira studiorum cupiditate et quodam ardore iuvenili, ut fabulas quoque eorum et disputationes et arcana semotae dictionis penitus exciperem, quamvis maligne plerique opinarentur nec Secundo promptum esse sermonem et Aprum ingenio potius et vi naturae quam institutione et
(2) litteris famam eloquentiae consecutum. Nam et Secundo purus et pressus et, in quantum satis erat, profluens sermo non defuit, et Aper omni eruditione imbutus contemnebat potius litteras quam nesciebat, tamquam maiorem industriae et laboris gloriam habiturus si ingenium eius nullis alienarum artium adminiculis inniti videretur.
3.: Igitur ut intravimus cubiculum Materni, sedentem ipsum<que> quem pridie recitaverat librum inter manus habentem deprehendimus.
(2) Tum Secundus “Nihilne te” inquit, “Materne, fabulae malignorum terrent quo minus offensas Catonis tui ames? An ideo librum istum adprehendisti ut diligentius retractares et, sublatis si qua pravae interpretationi materiam dederunt, emitteres Catonem non quidem meliorem, sed tamen securiorem?”
(3) Tum ille: “Leges tu quid Maternus sibi debuerit, et adgnosces quae audisti. Quod si qua omisit Cato, sequenti recitatione Thyestes dicet; hanc enim tragoediam disposui iam et intra me ipse formavi. Atque ideo maturare libri huius editionem festino, ut dimissa priore cura novae cogitationi toto pectore incumbam.”
(4) “Adeo te tragoediae istae non satiant,” inquit Aper, “quo minus omissis orationum et causarum studiis omne tempus modo circa Medeam, ecce nunc circa Thyestem consumas? cum te tot amicorum causae, tot coloniarum et municipiorum clientelae in forum vocent, quibus vix suffeceris, etiam si non novum tibi ipse negotium importasses, Domitium et Catonem, id est nostras quoque historias et Romana nomina, Graeculorum fabulis adgregare.”
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