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| Publius Cornelius Tacitus A dialogue on oratory IntraText CT - Text |
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| 21 I will frankly admit to you
that I can hardly keep from laughing at some of the ancients, and from falling
asleep at others. I do not single out any of the common herd, as Canutius, or
Arrius, and others in the same sick-room, so to say, who are content with mere
skin and bones. Even Calvus, although he has left, I think, one-and-twenty
volumes, scarcely satisfies me in one or two short speeches. The rest of the
world, I see, does not differ from my opinion about him; for how few read his
speeches against Asitius or Drusus! Certainly his impeachment of Vatinius, as
it is entitled, is in the hands of students, especially the second of the
orations. This, indeed, has a finish about the phrases and the periods, and
suits the ear of the critic, whence you may infer that even Calvus understood
what a better style is, but that he lacked genius and power rather than the
will to speak with more dignity and grace. What again from the speeches of
Caelius do we admire? Why, we like of these the whole, or at least parts, in
which we recognise the polish and elevation of our own day; but, as for those
mean expressions, those gaps in the structure of the sentences, and uncouth
sentiments, they savour of antiquity. No one, I suppose, is so thoroughly
antique as to praise Caelius simply on the side of his antiqueness. We may,
indeed, make allowance for Caius Julius Caesar, on account of his vast schemes
and many occupations, for having achieved less in eloquence than his divine
genius demanded from him, and leave him indeed, just as we leave Brutus to his
philosophy. Undoubtedly in his speeches he fell short of his reputation, even
by the admission of his admirers. I hardly suppose that any one reads Caesar’s
speech for Decius the Samnite, or that of Brutus for King Deiotarus, or other
works equally dull and cold, unless it is some one who also admires their
poems. For they did write poems, and sent them to libraries, with no better
success than Cicero, but with better luck, because fewer people know that they
wrote them. Asinius too, though born in a time nearer our own, seems to have studied with the Menenii and Appii. At any rate he imitated Pacuvius and Accius, not only in his tragedies but also in his speeches; he is so harsh and dry. Style, like the human body, is then specially beautiful when, so to say, the veins are not prominent, and the bones cannot be counted, but when a healthy and sound blood fills the limbs, and shows itself in the muscles, and the very sinews become beautiful under a ruddy glow and graceful outline. I will not attack Corvinus, for it was not indeed his own fault that he did not exhibit the luxuriance and brightness of our own day. Rather let us note how far the vigour of his intellect or of his imagination satisfied his critical faculty. |
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