Chap. 31.] 
MEN BEMAEKABLE EOR WISDOM. 
177 
his own statue erected. This was placed in the first public 
library that was ever built, and which was formed by Asinius 
Pollio with the spoils of our enemies. The fact of this dis- 
tinction being conferred upon him by one who was in the first 
rank, both as an orator and a citizen, and at a time, too, when 
there was so great a number of men distinguished for their 
genius, was not less honourable to him, in my opinion, than 
the naval crown which Pompeius Magnus bestowed upon him 
in the war against the pirates. The instances that follow 
among the Eomans, if I were to attempt to reckon them, 
would be found to be innumerable ; for it is the fact that this 
one nation has furnished a greater number of distinguished 
men in every branch than all the countries of the world taken 
together. 
Eut what atonement could I offer to thee, Marcus Tullius,^^ 
were I to be silent respecting thy name ? or on what ground 
am I to pronounce thee as especially pre-eminent ? On what, 
indeed, that can be more convincing than the most abundant 
testimony that was offered in thy favour by the whole Eomaa 
people ? Contenting myself with the selection only of such of the 
great actions of the whole of your life, as were performed during 
your consulship. — You speak, and the tribes surrender the 
Agrarian law, or, in other words, their very subsistence;^'^ you 
advise them to do so, and they pardon Eoscius,^^ the author of the 
the Eomans. His command under Pompey, in the war against the Pirates, 
has been aheady mentioned in B. iii. c. 16. He also served under him 
against Mithridates, and was his legatus in Spain, at the first outbreak of 
the civil wars. 
Pliny refers to the same subject: in B. xxxv. c. 2, he speaks of PolUo 
as qui primus, bibliothecam dicando, ingenia hominum rempublicam fe- 
cit" — The first who, by forming a public library, made pubhc property the 
genius of learned men." Aulus Gellius, B. vi. c. 18, informs us, that the 
first library, formed for the use of the public, was that collected at Athens 
by Pisistratus. — B. Ptolemy Philadelphus, the king of Pergamus, and 
LucuUus, had formed extensive libraries, but solely for their own use, and 
not that of the public. 
15 Some of these are given by Yal. Maximus, B, viii. c. 15. — B. It is 
very doubtful, however, if Greece did not greatly excel Rome in this respect. 
1^ Meaning Cicero, the orator and philosopher. 
1''' Cicero, in an Epistle to Atticus, B. ii. c. i., enumerates what he styles 
his consular orations : the total number is twelve, and among th^ we find 
all those here referred to by Pliny. — B. 
The individual referred to is L. Eoscius Otho ; by his law the Eoraan 
equites, who, before this time, sat mingled with the people generally, had 
yojL. ij. N 
