* 
Book I.] DEDICATIOIS'. 3 
enable you to imitate jour Brother^ ! But wlio is there that 
is bold enough to form an estimate on these points, if he is 
to be judged by you, and, more especially, if you are chal- 
lenged to do so ? Tor the case of those who merely publish 
their works is very different from that of those who ex- 
pressly dedicate them to you. In the former case I might 
say. Emperor ! why do you read these things ? They are 
written only for the common people, for farmers or mecha- 
nics, or for those who have nothing else to do ; why do you 
trouble yourself with them ? Indeed, when I undertook 
this work, I did not expect that you would sit in judgement 
upon me^; I considered your situation much too elevated 
for you to descend to such an ofhce. Besides, we possess the 
right of openly rejecting the opinion of men of learning. 
M. Tullius himself, whose genius is beyond all competition, 
uses this privilege ; and, remarkable as it may appear, em- 
ploys an advocate in his own defence: — " I do not write for 
very learned people ; I do not wish my works to be read by 
Manius Persius, but by Junius Congus^." And if Lucilius, 
who first introduced the satirical style^, applied such a re- 
mark to himself, and if Cicero thought proper to borrow it, 
and that more especially in his treatise " De liepublica," 
how much reason have I to do so, who have such a judge to 
defend myself against ! And by this dedication I have de- 
prived myself of the benefit of challenge^ ; for it is a very 
different thing whether a person has a judge given him by 
lot, or whether he voluntarily selects one ; and we always 
make more preparation for an invited guest, than for one 
that comes in unexpectedly. 
^ Suetonius speaks of Domitian's taste for poetry, as a part of liis ha- 
bitual dissimulation, viii. 2 ; see also the notes of Poinsinet, i. 26, and of 
Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 351. 
2 " Non eras in hoc albo ;" see the note of Alexandre, m Lemaire, i. 8. 
A passage in Quintihan, xii. 4, may serve to illustrate this use of the term 
' album' ; "... quorum aHi se ad album ac rubricas trans tulermit " 
3 It appears that the passage in which Cicero makes this quotation 
from Lucilius, is not in the part of his treatise De Bepubhca which was 
lately discovered by Angelus Mains ; Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 9. Cicero 
refers to this remark of LucOius in two of his other works, although with 
a variation in the expression and in the individuals specified ; De Orat. 
ii. 6, and De Fin. i. 3. 
^ " Qui primus condidit styK nasum." 
^ " Sed hsec ego nuhi nunc patrocinia ademi nuncupatione." 
b2 • 
