26 After all, if I must put on
one side the highest and most perfect type of eloquence and select a style, I
should certainly prefer the vehemence of Caius Gracchus or the sobriety of
Lucius Crassus to the curls of Maecenas or the jingles of Gallio: so much
better is it for an orator to wear a rough dress than to glitter in
many-coloured and meretricious attire. Indeed, neither for an orator or even a
man is that style becoming which is adopted by many of the speakers of our age,
and which, with its idle redundancy of words, its meaningless periods and
licence of expression, imitates the art of the actor. Shocking as it ought to
be to our ears it is a fact that fame, glory, and genius are sacrificed by many
to the boast that their compositions are given with the tones of the singer,
the gestures of the dancer. Hence the exclamation, which, though often heard,
is a shame and an absurdity, that our orators speak prettily and our actors
dance eloquently. For myself I would not deny that Cassius Severus, the only
speaker whom Aper ventured to name, may, if compared with his successors, be
called an orator, although in many of his works he shows more violence than
vigour. The first to despise arrangement, to cast off propriety and delicacy of
expression, confused by the very weapons he employs, and often stumbling in his
eagerness to strike, he wrangles rather than fights. Still, as I have said,
compared with his successors, he is far superior to all in the variety of his
learning, the charm of his wit, and the solidity of his very strength. Not one
of them has Aper had the courage to mention, and, so to say, to bring into the
field. When he had censured Asinius, Caelius, and Calvus, I expected that he
would show us a host of others, and name more, or at least as many who might be
pitted man by man against Cicero, Caesar, and the rest. As it is, he has
contented himself with singling out for disparagement some ancient orators, and
has not dared to praise any of their successors, except generally and in terms
common to all, fearing, I suppose, that he would offend many, if he selected a
few. For there is scarce one of our rhetoricians who does not rejoice in his
conviction that he is to be ranked before Cicero,
but unquestionably second to Gabinianus.
|