BOOK VII. XXX. 116-XXXT. 119 



is a countless series of llonian examples, if one chose 

 to pursue them, since a single race has produced 

 more men of distinction in every branch whatever 

 than the whole of the other countries. But what 

 excuse could I have for omitting mention of you, 

 Marcus TulHus ? or by what distinctive mark can I 

 advertise your superlative excellence ? by what in 

 preference to the most honourable testimony of that 

 whole nation's decree, selecting out of your entire 

 hfe only the achievements of your consulship ? " 

 Your oratory induced the tribes to discard the 

 agrarian law,'' that is, their own HveUhood; your 

 advice led them to forgive Roscius "^ the proposer of 

 the law as to the thcatre, and to tolerate with 

 e<|uanimity the mark put upon them by a distiiic- 

 tion of seating; your entreaty made the children of 

 the men sentenced to proscription ashamed to stand 

 for office ; your genius drove CatiHne to flight ; you 

 proscribed Mark Antony. Hail, first recipient of 

 the title of Father of the Country, first winner of a 

 civiHan triumph and of a wreath of honour for 

 oratory, and parent of eloquence and of Latium's 

 letters ; and (as your former foe, the dictator Caesar, 

 wrote of you) winner of a greater laurel wreath thaix 

 that of any triumph, inasmuch as it is a greater 

 thing to have advanced so far the frontiers of 

 the Roman genius than the frontiers of Rome's 

 empire. 



XXXI. Persons who have surpassed the rest of Eminent 

 mortal kindin the remaining gifts of the mind are : in >'"■ '"'"p '"''• 

 wisdom, the people who on this account won at Rome 

 the surnames of Wise and Sage,'' and in Greece 



Corculum (hcre pluralised in the masculine) was thc sumame 

 given to Scipio Nasica, consul 162 and 155 b.c. 



583 



