218 History of Nature. [BooK VII. 



in the Pirates' War. There are innumerable Roman exam- 

 ples, if a Man would search them out: for this one Nation 

 hath brought forth more excellent Men in every kind than 

 all besides. But why should I be silent concerning the sacri- 

 fice of M. Tullius? or how shall I best declare his high 

 excellency? how better his praises than from the most 

 ample testimony of the whole body of the People in general, 

 and the acts only of this Consulship, chosen out of the 

 whole course of thy life? Thine Eloquence was the cause 

 that the Tribes renounced the Agrarian Law : that is, their 

 own Sustenance. Through thy Persuasion they pardoned 

 Roscius, the Author of the Law of the Theatre; 1 they were 

 content to be noted by the Difference of Seat. At thy 

 Request the Children of the Proscribed felt ashamed to sue 

 for honourable Dignities ; Catiline fled from thy Ability ; it 

 was thou that proscribedst M. Antonius. Hail, thou who wast 

 the first that wast saluted by the Name of Father of thy Coun- 

 try! the first in the long Robe that deserved a Triumph, and 

 the Laurel for thy Language ! the Father indeed of Elo- 

 quence and of the Latin Learning : and (as the Dictator 

 Ccesar, who was at one Time thine Enemy, hath written of 

 thee) hast obtained a Laurel above all other Triumphs, by how 

 much more Praiseworthy it is to have enlarged the Bounds 

 of Roman Learning than of Roman Dominion. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

 Of Majesty in Manners. 



THOSE who, among other Gifts of the Mind, have sur- 

 passed the rest of Mankind in Wisdom, were on that Account 

 among the Romans surnamed Cati, and CorculL Among the 

 Greeks, Socrates was preferred to all beside by the Oracle of 

 Apollo Pythius. 



1 The Roscian and Julian law, of which L. Roscius Otho, tribune of 

 the people, was the author, which denned and regulated the order of 

 sitting in the public theatre ; where, before this, the people mixed indis- 

 criminately with the knights. The law seems to have been unpopular, 

 and therefore to have required frequent renewal. Martial (b. v. ep. 8), 

 has an amusing epigram on its enforcement by Domitian. Wern. Club. 



