Lives Of Eminent Grammarians And Rhetoricians - C. Suetonius Tranquillus
XXI. CAIUS MELISSUS [893], a native of Spoletum, was free-born, but
having been exposed by his parents in consequence of quarrels between
them, he received a good education from his foster-father, by whose care
and industry he was brought up, and was made a present of to Mecaenas, as
a grammarian. Finding himself valued and treated as a friend, he
preferred to continue in his state of servitude, although he was claimed
by his mother, choosing rather his present condition than that which his
real origin entitled him to. In consequence, his freedom was speedily
given him, and he even became a favourite with Augustus. By his
appointment he was made curator of the library in the portico of Octavia
[894]; and, as he himself informs us, undertook to compose, when he was
a sexagenarian, his books of "Witticisms," which are now called "The Book
of Jests." Of these he accomplished one hundred and fifty, to which he
afterwards added several more. He (521) also composed a new kind of
story about those who wore the toga, and called it "Trabeat." [895]
XXII. MARCUS POMPONIUS MARCELLUS, a very severe critic of the Latin
tongue, who sometimes pleaded causes, in a certain address on the
plaintiff's behalf, persisted in charging his adversary with making a
solecism, until Cassius Severus appealed to the judges to grant an
adjournment until his client should produce another grammarian, as he was
not prepared to enter into a controversy respecting a solecism, instead
of defending his client's rights. On another occasion, when he had found
fault with some expression in a speech made by Tiberius, Atteius Capito
[896] affirmed, "that if it was not Latin, at least it would be so in
time to come;" "Capito is wrong," cried Marcellus; "it is certainly in
your power, Caesar, to confer the freedom of the city on whom you please,
but you cannot make words for us." Asinius Gallus [897] tells us that he
was formerly a pugilist, in the following epigram.
Qui caput ad laevam deicit, glossemata nobis
Praecipit; os nullum, vel potius pugilis.
Who ducked his head, to shun another's fist,
Though he expound old saws,--yet, well I wist,
With pummelled nose and face, he's but a pugilist.
XXIII. REMMIUS PALAEMON [898], of Vicentia [899], the offspring of a
bond-woman, acquired the rudiments of learning, first as the companion of
a weaver's, and then of his master's, son, at school. Being afterwards
made free, he taught at Rome, where he stood highest in the rank of the
grammarians; but he was so infamous for every sort of vice, that Tiberius
and his successor Claudius publicly denounced him as an improper person
to have the education of boys and young men entrusted to him. Still, his
powers of narrative and agreeable style of speaking made him very
popular; besides which, he had the gift of making extempore verses. He
also wrote a great many in (522) various and uncommon metres. His
insolence was such, that he called Marcus Varro "a hog;" and bragged that
"letters were born and would perish with him;" and that "his name was not
introduced inadvertently in the Bucolics [900], as Virgil divined that a
Palaemon would some day be the judge of all poets and poems." He also
boasted, that having once fallen into the hands of robbers, they spared
him on account of the celebrity his name had acquired.
He was so luxurious, that he took the bath many times in a day; nor did
his means suffice for his extravagance, although his school brought him
in forty thousand sesterces yearly, and he received not much less from
his private estate, which he managed with great care. He also kept a
broker's shop for the sale of old clothes; and it is well known that a
vine [901], he planted himself, yielded three hundred and fifty bottles
of wine. But the greatest of all his vices was his unbridled
licentiousness in his commerce with women, which he carried to the utmost
pitch of foul indecency [902]. They tell a droll story of some one who
met him in a crowd, and upon his offering to kiss him, could not escape
the salute, "Master," said he, "do you want to mouth every one you meet
with in a hurry?"
XXIV. MARCUS VALERIUS PROBUS, of Berytus [903], after long aspiring to
the rank of centurion, being at last tired of waiting, devoted himself to
study. He had met with some old authors at a bookseller's shop in the
provinces, where the memory of ancient times still lingers, and is not
quite forgotten, as it is at Rome. Being anxious carefully to reperuse
these, and afterwards to make acquaintance with other works of the same
kind, he found himself an object of contempt, and was laughed (523) at
for his lectures, instead of their gaining him fame or profit. Still,
however, he persisted in his purpose, and employed himself in correcting,
illustrating, and adding notes to many works which he had collected, his
labours being confined to the province of a grammarian, and nothing more.
He had, properly speaking, no scholars, but some few followers. For he
never taught in such a way as to maintain the character of a master; but
was in the habit of admitting one or two, perhaps at most three or four,
disciples in the afternoon; and while he lay at ease and chatted freely
on ordinary topics, he occasionally read some book to them, but that did
not often happen. He published a few slight treatises on some subtle
questions, besides which, he left a large collection of observations on
the language of the ancients.
LIVES OF EMINENT RHETORICIANS.
(524)
I. Rhetoric, also, as well as Grammar, was not introduced amongst us
till a late period, and with still more difficulty, inasmuch as we find
that, at times, the practice of it was even prohibited. In order to
leave no doubt of this, I will subjoin an ancient decree of the senate,
as well as an edict of the censors:--"In the consulship of Caius Fannius
Strabo, and Marcus Palerius Messala [904]: the praetor Marcus Pomponius
moved the senate, that an act be passed respecting Philosophers and
Rhetoricians. In this matter, they have decreed as follows: 'It shall be
lawful for M. Pomponius, the praetor, to take such measures, and make
such provisions, as the good of the Republic, and the duty of his office,
require, that no Philosophers or Rhetoricians be suffered at Rome.'"
After some interval, the censor Cnaeus Domitius Aenobarbus and Lucius
Licinius Crassus issued the following edict upon the same subject: "It is
reported to us that certain persons have instituted a new kind of
discipline; that our youth resort to their schools; that they have
assumed the title of Latin Rhetoricians; and that young men waste their
time there for whole days together. Our ancestors have ordained what
instruction it is fitting their children should receive, and what schools
they should attend. These novelties, contrary to the customs and
instructions of our ancestors, we neither approve, nor do they appear to
us good. Wherefore it appears to be our duty that we should notify our
judgment both to those who keep such schools, and those who are in the
practice of frequenting them, that they meet our disapprobation."
However, by slow degrees, rhetoric manifested itself to be a (525) useful
and honourable study, and many persons devoted themselves to it, both as
a means of defence and of acquiring reputation. Cicero declaimed in
Greek until his praetorship, but afterwards, as he grew older, in Latin
also; and even in the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa [905], whom he
calls "his great and noble disciples." Some historians state that Cneius
Pompey resumed the practice of declaiming even during the civil war, in
order to be better prepared to argue against Caius Curio, a young man of
great talents, to whom the defence of Caesar was entrusted. They say,
likewise, that it was not forgotten by Mark Antony, nor by Augustus, even
during the war of Modena. Nero also declaimed [906] even after he became
emperor, in the first year of his reign, which he had done before in
public but twice. Many speeches of orators were also published. In
consequence, public favour was so much attracted to the study of
rhetoric, that a vast number of professors and learned men devoted
themselves to it; and it flourished to such a degree, that some of them
raised themselves by it to the rank of senators and the highest offices.
But the same mode of teaching was not adopted by all, nor, indeed, did
individuals always confine themselves to the same system, but each varied
his plan of teaching according to circumstances. For they were
accustomed, in stating their argument with the utmost clearness, to use
figures and apologies, to put cases, as circumstances required, and to
relate facts, sometimes briefly and succinctly, and, at other times, more
at large and with greater feeling. Nor did they omit, on occasion, to
resort to translations from the Greek, and to expatiate in the praise, or
to launch their censures on the faults, of illustrious men. They also
dealt with matters connected with every-day life, pointing out such as
are useful and necessary, and such as are hurtful and needless. They had
occasion often to support the authority of fabulous accounts, and to
detract from that of historical narratives, which sort the Greeks call
"Propositions," "Refutations" and "Corroboration," until by a gradual
process they have exhausted these topics, and arrive at the gist of the
argument.
Among the ancients, subjects of controversy were drawn either from
history, as indeed some are even now, or from (526) actual facts, of
recent occurrence. It was, therefore, the custom to state them
precisely, with details of the names of places. We certainly so find
them collected and published, and it may be well to give one or two of
them literally, by way of example:
"A company of young men from the city, having made an excursion to Ostia
in the summer season, and going down to the beach, fell in with some
fishermen who were casting their nets in the sea. Having bargained with
them for the haul, whatever it might turn out to be, for a certain sum,
they paid down the money. They waited a long time while the nets were
being drawn, and when at last they were dragged on shore, there was no
fish in them, but some gold sewn up in a basket. The buyers claim the
haul as theirs, the fishermen assert that it belongs to them."
Again: "Some dealers having to land from a ship at Brundusium a cargo of
slaves, among which there was a handsome boy of great value, they, in
order to deceive the collectors of the customs, smuggled him ashore in
the dress of a freeborn youth, with the bullum [907] hung about his neck.
The fraud easily escaped detection. They proceed to Rome; the affair
becomes the subject of judicial inquiry; it is alleged that the boy was
entitled to his freedom, because his master had voluntarily treated him
as free."
Formerly, they called these by a Greek term, syntaxeis, but of late
"controversies;" but they may be either fictitious cases, or those which
come under trial in the courts. Of the eminent professors of this
science, of whom any memorials are extant, it would not be easy to find
many others than those of whom I shall now proceed to give an account.
II. LUCIUS PLOTIUS GALLUS. Of him Marcus Tullius Cicero thus writes to
Marcus Titinnius [908]: "I remember well that when we were boys, one
Lucius Plotius first began to teach Latin; and as great numbers flocked
to his school, so that all who were most devoted to study were eager to
take lessons from him, it was a great trouble to me that I too was not
allowed to do so. I was prevented, however, by the decided opinion (527)
of men of the greatest learning, who considered that it was best to
cultivate the genius by the study of Greek." This same Gallus, for he
lived to a great age, was pointed at by M. Caelius, in a speech which he
was forced to make in his own cause, as having supplied his accuser,
Atracinus [909], with materials for his charge. Suppressing his name, he
says that such a rhetorician was like barley bread [910] compared to a
wheaten loaf,--windy, chaffy, and coarse.
III. LUCIUS OCTACILIUS PILITUS is said to have been a slave, and,
according to the old custom, chained to the door like a watch-dog [911];
until, having been presented with his freedom for his genius and devotion
to learning, he drew up for his patron the act of accusation in a cause
he was prosecuting. After that, becoming a professor of rhetoric, he
gave instructions to Cneius Pompey the Great, and composed an account of
his actions, as well as of those of his father, being the first freedman,
according to the opinion of Cornelius Nepos [912], who ventured to write
history, which before his time had not been done by any one who was not
of the highest ranks in society.
IV. About this time, EPIDIUS [913] having fallen into disgrace for
bringing a false accusation, opened a school of instruction, in which he
taught, among others, Mark Antony and Augustus. On one occasion Caius
Canutius jeered them for presuming to belong to the party of the consul
Isauricus [914] in his administration of the republic; upon which he
replied, that he would rather be the disciple of Isauricus, than of
Epidius, the false accuser. This Epidius claimed to be descended from
Epidius Nuncio, who, as (528) ancient traditions assert, fell into the
fountain of the river Sarnus [915] when the streams were overflown, and
not being afterwards found, was reckoned among the number of the gods.
V. SEXTUS CLODIUS, a native of Sicily, a professor both of Greek and
Latin eloquence, had bad eyes and a facetious tongue. It was a saying of
his, that he lost a pair of eyes from his intimacy with Mark Antony, the
triumvir [916]. Of his wife, Fulvia, when there was a swelling in one of
her cheeks, he said that "she tempted the point of his style;" [917] nor
did Antony think any the worse of him for the joke, but quite enjoyed it;
and soon afterwards, when Antony was consul [918], he even made him a
large grant of land, which Cicero charges him with in his Philippics
[919]. "You patronize," he said, "a master of the schools for the sake
of his buffoonery, and make a rhetorician one of your pot-companions;
allowing him to cut his jokes on any one he pleased; a witty man, no
doubt, but it was an easy matter to say smart things of such as you and
your companions. But listen, Conscript Fathers, while I tell you what
reward was given to this rhetorician, and let the wounds of the republic
be laid bare to view. You assigned two thousand acres of the Leontine
territory [920] to Sextus Clodius, the rhetorician, and not content with
that, exonerated the estate from all taxes. Hear this, and learn from
the extravagance of the grant, how little wisdom is displayed in your
acts."
VI. CAIUS ALBUTIUS SILUS, of Novara [921], while, in the execution (529)
of the office of edile in his native place, he was sitting for the
administration of justice, was dragged by the feet from the tribunal by
some persons against whom he was pronouncing a decree. In great
indignation at this usage, he made straight for the gate of the town, and
proceeded to Rome. There he was admitted to fellowship, and lodged, with
Plancus the orator [922], whose practice it was, before he made a speech
in public, to set up some one to take the contrary side in the argument.
The office was undertaken by Albutius with such success, that he silenced
Plancus, who did not venture to put himself in competition with him.
This bringing him into notice, he collected an audience of his own, and
it was his custom to open the question proposed for debate, sitting; but
as he warmed with the subject, he stood up, and made his peroration in
that posture. His declamations were of different kinds; sometimes
brilliant and polished, at others, that they might not be thought to
savour too much of the schools, he curtailed them of all ornament, and
used only familiar phrases. He also pleaded causes, but rarely, being
employed in such as were of the highest importance, and in every case
undertaking the peroration only.
In the end, he gave up practising in the forum, partly from shame, partly
from fear. For, in a certain trial before the court of the One Hundred
[923], having lashed the defendant as a man void of natural affection for
his parents, he called upon him by a bold figure of speech, "to swear by
the ashes of his father and mother which lay unburied;" his adversary
taking him up for the suggestion, and the judges frowning upon it, he
lost his cause, and was much blamed. At another time, on a trial for
murder at Milan, before Lucius Piso, the proconsul, having to defend the
culprit, he worked himself up to such a pitch of vehemence, that in a
crowded court, who loudly applauded him, notwithstanding all the efforts
of the lictor to maintain order, he broke out into a lamentation on the
miserable state of Italy [924], then in danger of being again reduced, he
said, into (530) the form of a province, and turning to the statue of
Marcus Brutus, which stood in the Forum, he invoked him as "the founder
and vindicator of the liberties of the people." For this he narrowly
escaped a prosecution. Suffering, at an advanced period of life, from an
ulcerated tumour, he returned to Novara, and calling the people together
in a public assembly, addressed them in a set speech, of considerable
length, explaining the reasons which induced him to put an end to
existence: and this he did by abstaining from food.
END OF THE LIVES OF GRAMMARIANS AND RHETORICIANS.
FOOTNOTES:
[842] It will be understood that the terms Grammar and Grammarian have
here a more extended sense than that which they convey in modern use.
See the beginning of c. iv.
[843] Suetonius's account of the rude and unlettered state of society in
the early times of Rome, is consistent with what we might infer, and with
the accounts which have come down to us, of a community composed of the
most daring and adventurous spirits thrown off by the neighbouring
tribes, and whose sole occupations were rapine and war. But Cicero
discovers the germs of mental cultivation among the Romans long before
the period assigned to it by Suetonius, tracing them to the teaching of
Pythagoras, who visited the Greek cities on the coast of Italy in the
reign of Tarquinius Superbus.--Tusc. Quaest. iv. 1.
[844] Livius, whose cognomen Andronicus, intimates his extraction, was
born of Greek parents. He began to teach at Rome in the consulship of
Claudius Cento, the son of Appius Caecus, and Sempronius Tuditanus,
A.U.C. 514. He must not be confounded with Titus Livius, the historian,
who flourished in the Augustan age.
[845] Ennius was a native of Calabria. He was born the year after the
consulship mentioned in the preceding note, and lived to see at least his
seventy-sixth year, for Gellius informs us that at that age he wrote the
twelfth book of his Annals.
[846] Porcius Cato found Ennius in Sardinia, when he conquered that
island during his praetorship. He learnt Greek from Ennius there, and
brought him to Rome on his return. Ennius taught Greek at Rome for a
long course of years, having M. Cato among his pupils.
[847] Mallos was near Tarsus, in Cilicia. Crates was the son of
Timocrates, a Stoic philosopher, who for his critical skill had the
surname of Homericus.
[848] Aristarchus flourished at Alexandria, in the reign of Ptolemy
Philometer, whose son he educated.
[849] A.U.C. 535-602 or 605.
[850] Cicero [De Clar. Orat. c. xx., De Senect. c. v. 1] places the
death of Ennius A.U.C. 584, for which there are other authorities; but
this differs from the account given in a former note.
[851] The History of the first Punic War by Naevius is mentioned by
Cicero, De Senect, c. 14.
[852] Lucilius, the poet, was born about A.U.C. 605.
[853] Q. Metellus obtained the surname of Numidicus, on his triumph over
Jugurtha, A.U.C. 644. Aelius, who was Varro's tutor, accompanied him to
Rhodes or Smyrna, when he was unjustly banished, A.U.C. 653.
[854] Servius Claudius (also called Clodius) is commended by Cicero,
Fam. Epist. ix. 16, and his singular death mentioned by Pliny, xxv. 4.
[855] Daphnis, a shepherd, the son of Mercury, was said to have been
brought up by Pan. The humorous turn given by Lenaeus to Lutatius's
cognomen is not very clear. Daphnides is the plural of Daphnis;
therefore the herd or company, agaema; and Pan was the god of rustics,
and the inventor of the rude music of the reed.
[856] Oppius Cares is said by Macrobius to have written a book on Forest
Trees.
[857] Quintilian enumerates Bibaculus among the Roman poets in the same
line with Catullus and Horace, Institut. x. 1. Of Sigida we know
nothing; even the name is supposed to be incorrectly given. Apuleius
mentions a Ticida, who is also noticed by Suetonius hereafter in c. xi.,
where likewise he gives an account of Valerius Cato.
[858] Probably Suevius, of whom Macrobius informs us that he was the
learned author of an Idyll, which had the title of the Mulberry Grove;
observing, that "the peach which Suevius reckons as a species of the
nuts, rather belongs to the tribe of apples."
[859] Aurelius Opilius is mentioned by Symmachus and Gellius. His
cotemporary and friend, Rutilius Rufus, having been a military tribune
under Scipio in the Numantine war, wrote a history of it. He was consul
A.U.C. 648, and unjustly banished, to the general grief of the people,
A.U.C. 659.
[860] Quintilian mentions Gnipho, Instit. i. 6. We find that Cicero was
among his pupils. The date of his praetorship, given below, fixes the
time when Gnipho flourished.
[861] This strange cognomen is supposed to have been derived from a cork
arm, which supplied the place of one Dionysius had lost. He was a poet
of Mitylene.
[862] See before, JULIUS, c. xlvi.
[863] A.U.C. 687.
[864] Suetonius gives his life in c. x.
[865] A grade of inferior officers in the Roman armies, of which we have
no very exact idea.
[866] Horace speaks feelingly on the subject:
Memini quae plagosum mihi parvo
Orbilium tractare. Epist. xi. i. 70.
I remember well when I was young,
How old Orbilius thwacked me at my tasks.
[867] Domitius Marsus wrote epigrams. He is mentioned by Ovid and
Martial.
[868] This is not the only instance mentioned by Suetonius of statues
erected to learned men in the place of their birth or celebrity.
Orbilius, as a schoolmaster, was represented in a sitting posture, and
with the gown of the Greek philosophers.
[869] Tacitus [Annal. cxi. 75] gives the character of Atteius Capito.
He was consul A.U.C. 758.
[870] Asinius Pollio; see JULIUS, c. xxx.
[871] Whether Hermas was the son or scholar of Gnipho, does not appear,
[872] Eratosthenes, an Athenian philosopher, flourished in Egypt, under
three of the Ptolemies successively. Strabo often mentions him. See
xvii. p. 576.
[873] Cornelius Helvius Cinna was an epigrammatic poet, of the same age
as Catullus. Ovid mentions him, Tristia, xi. 435.
[874] Priapus was worshipped as the protector of gardens.
[875] Zenodotus, the grammarian, was librarian to the first Ptolemy at
Alexandria, and tutor to his sons.
[876] For Crates, see before, p. 507.
[877] We find from Plutarch that Sylla was employed two days before his
death, in completing the twenty-second book of his Commentaries; and,
foreseeing his fate, entrusted them to the care of Lucullus, who, with
the assistance of Epicadius, corrected and arranged them. Epicadius also
wrote on Heroic verse, and Cognomina.
[878] Plutarch, in his Life of Caesar, speaks of the loose conduct of
Mucia, Pompey's wife, during her husband's absence.
[879] Fam. Epist. 9.
[880] Cicero ad Att. xii. 36.
[881] See before, AUGUSTUS, c. v.
[882] Lenaeus was not singular in his censure of Sallust. Lactantius,
11. 12, gives him an infamous character; and Horace says of him,
Libertinarum dico; Sallustius in quas
Non minus insanit; quam qui moechatur.--Sat. i. 2. 48.
[883] The name of the well known Roman knight, to whom Cicero addressed
his Epistles, was Titus Pomponius Atticus. Although Satrius was the name
of a family at Rome, no connection between it and Atticus can be found,
so that the text is supposed to be corrupt. Quintus Caecilius was an
uncle of Atticus, and adopted him. The freedman mentioned in this
chapter probably assumed his name, he having been the property of
Caecilius; as it was the custom for freedmen to adopt the names of their
patrons.
[884] Suetonius, TIBERIUS, c. viii. Her name was Pomponia.
[885] See AUGUSTUS, c. lxvi.
[886] He is mentioned before, c. ix.
[887] Verrius Flaccus is mentioned by St. Jerome, in conjunction with
Athenodorus of Tarsus, a Stoic philosopher, to have flourished A.M.C.
2024, which is A.U.C. 759; A.D. 9. He is also praised by Gellius,
Macrobius, Pliny, and Priscian.
[888] Cinna wrote a poem, which he called "Smyrna," and was nine years
in composing, as Catullus informs us, 93. 1.