guard, not only of his fafety, but of his dignity, to have it remembered, that he is the fon of one who, at the hazard of his own life, preferved you all. Therefore, confcript fathers, let me exhort you to proceed with vigour and refolution in an affair that regards your very being, and that of the people of Rome; your wives and children; your religion, and properties; your altars, and temples; the houfes, and dwellings of this city; your empire; your liberty; the fafety of Italy; and the whole fyftem of the commonwealth. For you have a conful, who will not only obey your decrees without hefitation, but while he lives, will fupport and execute in perfon whatever you shall order. Whitworth's Cicero. A. Licinius Archias was a native of Antioch, and a very celebrated poet. He came to Rome when Cicero was about five years old, and was courted by men of the greatest eminence in it, on account of his learning, genius, and politeness. Among others, Lucullus was very fond of him, took him into his family, aad gave him the liberty of opening a fchool in it, to which many of the young nobility and gentry of Rome were fent for their education. In the confulfhip of M. Pupius Pifo and M. Valerius Meffala, one Gracchus, a perfon of obfcure birth, accufed Archias upon the law, by which thofe who were made free of any of the confederated cities, and at the time of paffing the law dwelt in Italy, were obliged to claim their privilege before the prætor within fixty days. Cicero, in his oration, endeavours to prove, that Archias was a Roman citizen in the fenfe of that law; but dwells chiefly on the praifes of poetry in general, and the talents and genius of the defendant, which he difplays with great beauty, elegance, and fpirit. The oration was made in the forty-fixth year of Cicero's age, and the fix hundred and ninety-fecond of Rome. IF, my lords, I have any abilities, and I am fenfible they are but fmall; if, by fpeaking often, I have acquired any merit as a speaker; if I have derived any knowledge from the ftudy of the liberal arts, which have ever been my delight, A. Licinius may justly claim the fruit of all. For looking back upon paft fcenes, and calling to remembrance the earlieft part of my life, I find it was he who prompted me firit to engage in a courfe of study, and directed me in it. If my tongue, then formed and animated by him, has ever been the means of faving any, I am certainly bound by all the ties of gratitude to employ it in the defence of him, who has taught it to afift and defend others. And though his genius and courfe of ftudy are very different from mine, let no one be furprised at what I advance: for I have not beftowed the whole of my time on the ftudy of eloquence, and befides, all the liberal arts are nearly allied to each other, and have, as it were, one common bond of union. But left it should appear ftrange, that, in a legal proceeding, and a public caufe, before an excellent prætor, the moft impartial judges, and fo crowded an affembly, I lay aide the ufual ftile of trials, and introduce one very different from that of the bar; I muft beg to be indulged in this liberty,which, I hope, will not be difagreeable to you, and which feems indeed to be due to the defendant: that whilst I am pleading for an excellent poet, and a man of great erudition, before fo learned an audience, fuch diftinguished patrons of the liberal arts, and fo eminent a prætor, you would allow me to enlarge with fome freedom on learning and liberal studies; and to employ an almost unprecedented language for one, who, by reafon of a studious and unactive life, has been little converfant in dangers and public trials. If this, my lords, is granted me, I fhall not only prove that A. Licinius ought not, as he is a citizen, to be deprived of his privileges, but that, if he were not, he ought to be admitted. For no fooner had Archias got beyond the years of childhood, and applied himfelf to poetry, after finishing thofe ftudies by which the minds of youth are ufually formed to a tafte for polite learning, than his genius fhewed itfelf fuperior to any at Antioch, the place where he was born, of a noble family; once indeed a rich and renowned city, but ftill famous for liberal arts, and fertile in learned men. He was afterwards received with fuch applaufe in the other cities of Afia, and all over Greece, that though they expected more than fame U u z had had promifed concerning him, even these expectations were exceeded, and their admiration of him greatly increased. Italy was, at that time, full of the arts and fciences of Greece, which were then cultivated with more care among the Latins than now they are, and were not even neglected at Rome, the public tranquillity being favourable to them. Accordingly, the inhabitants of Tarentum, Rhegium and Naples, made him free of their refpective cities, and conferred other honours upon him; and all thofe who had any taste, reckoned him worthy of their acquaintance and friendship. Being thus known by fame to those who were ftrangers to his perfon, he came to Rome in the confulfhip of Marius and Catulus; the first of whom had, by his glorious deeds, furnished out a noble fubject for a poet; and the other, befides his memorable actions, was both a judge and a lover of poetry. Though he had not yet reached his feventeenth year, yet no fooner was he arrived than the Luculli took him into their family; which, as it was the first that received him in his youth, fo it afforded him freedom of accefs even in old age; nor was this owing to his great genius and learning alone, but likewife to his amiable temper and virtuous difpofition. At that time too, Q. Metellus Numidicus, and his fon Pius, were delighted with his converfation; M. Æmilius was one of his hearers; Q Catulus, both the elder and younger, honoured him with their intimacy; L. Craffus courted him; and being united by the greatest familiarity to the Luculli, Drufus, the Octavii, Cato, and the whole Hortenfian family; it was no fmall honour to him to receive marks of the highest regard, not only from thofe who were really defirous of hearing him, and of being inftructed by him, but even from thofe who affected to be so. A confiderable time after, he went with L. Lucullus into Sicily, and leaving that province in company with the fame Lucullus, came to Heraclea, which being joined with Rome by the clofeft bonds of alliance, he was defirous of being made free of it; and obtained his request, both on account of his own merit, and the interet and authority of Lucullus. Strangers were admitted to the freedom of Rome, according to the law of Silvanus and Carbo, upon the following conditions: If they were enrolled by free cities; if they had a dwelling in Italy, when the law paf fed; and if they declared their enrolment before the praetor within the space of fixty days Agreeable to this law, Archias, who had refided at Rome for many years, made his declaration before the prætor Q. Metellus, who was his intimate friend. If the right of citizenship and the law is all I have to prove, I have done; the cause is ended. For which of thefe things, Gracchus, can you deny? Will you fay that he was not made a citizen of Heraclea at that time? Why, here is Lucullus, a man of the greateft credit, honour, and integrity, who affirms it; and that not as a thing he believes, but as what he knows; not as what he heard of, but as what he faw; not as what he was prefent at, but as what he transacted. Here are likewife deputies from Heraclea, who affirm the fame; men of the greatest quality, come hither on purpofe to give public teftimony in this caufe. But here you'll defire to fee the public regifter of Heraclea, which we all know was burnt in the Italian war, together with the office wherein it was kept. Now, is it not ridiculous to fay nothing to the evidences which we have, and to "defire thofe which we cannot have; to be filent as to the teftimony of men, and to demand the teftimony of registers; to pay no regard to what is affirmed by a perfon of great dignity, nor to the oath and integrity of a free city of the ftri&teft honour, evidences which are incapable of being corrupted, and to require thofe of regifters which you allow to be frequently vitiated. But he did not refide at Rome: what he, who for fo many years before Silvanu.'s law made Rome the feat of all his hopes and fortune. But he did not deciare; fo far is this from being true, that his declaration is to be feen in that regifter, which, by that very act, and its being in the cuftody of the college of praetors, is the only authen tic one. For the negligence of Appius, the corruption of Gabinius before his condemnation, and his difgrace after, having deftroyed the credit of public records; Metellus, a man of the greatest honour and modefty, was fo very exact, that he came before Lentulus the prætor and the other judges, and declared that he was uneasy at the erazure of a fingle name. The name of A. Licinius therefore is fill to be feen; and as this is the cafe, why should you doubt of his being a citizen of Rome, efpecially as he was enrolled likewife in other free cities? For when Gre ce be flowed flowed the freedom of its cities, without the recommendation of merit, upon perfons of little confideration, and those who had either no employment at all, or very mean ones, is it to be imagined that the inhabitants of Rhegium, Locris, Naples, or Tarentum, would deny to a man fo highly celebrated for his genius, what they conferred even upon comedians? When others, not only after Silanus's law, but even after the Papian law, fhall have found means to creep into the regifters of the municipal cities, fhall he be rejected, who, because he was always defirous of paffing for an Heraclean, never availed himself of his being enrolled in other cities? But you defire to fee the enrolment of our eftate; as if it were not well known, that under the last cenforfhip the defendant was with the army commanded by that renowned general L. Lucalus; that under the cenforthip immediately preceding, he was with the fame Lucullus then quæftor in Afia; and that, when Julius and Craffus were cenfors, there was no enrolment made? But, as an enrolment in the cenfors books does not confirm the right of citizenship, and only fhews that the perfon enrolled affumed the character of a citizen, I must tell you that Archias made a will according to our laws, fucceeded to the eftates of Roman citizens, and was recommended to the treasury by L. Lucullus, both when prætor and conful, as one who deferved well of the state, at the very time when you alledge that, by his own confeffion, he had no right to the freedom of Rome. Find out whatever arguments you can, Archias will never be convicted for his own conduct, nor that of his friends. But you'll no doubt afk the reafon, Gracchus, of my being fo highly delighted with this man? Why, it is because he furnishes me with what relieves my mind, and charms my ears, after the fatigue and noise of the forum. Do you imagine that I could poffibly plead every day on fuch a variety of fubjects, if my mind was not cultivated with fcience; or that it could bear being ftretched to fuch a degree, if it were not fometimes unbent by the amufements of learning. I am fond of thefe ftudies, I own: let those be afhamed who have buried themselves in learning fo as to be of no efe to fociety, nor able to produce any thing to public view; but why fhould I be ashamed, who for fo many years, my lords, have never been prevented by in dolence, feduced by pleasure, nor diverted by fleep, from doing good offices to others? Who then can cenfure me, or in justice be angry with me, if thofe hours which others employ in bufinefs, in pleasures, in celebrating public folemnities, in refreshing the body and unbending the mind; if the time which is fpent by fome in midnight banquetings, in diverfions, and in gaming, employ in reviewing thefe ftudies? And this application is the more excufable, as I derive no fmall advantages from it in my profeffion, in which, whatever abilities I poffefs, they have always been employed when the dangers of my friends called for their affiftance. If they fhould appear to any to be but fmall, there are fill other advantages of a much higher nature, and I am very fenfible whence I derive them. For had not been convinced from my youth, by much inftrustion and much study, that nothing is greatly defirable in life but glory and virtue, and that, in the pursuit of thefe, all bodily tortures, and the perils of death and exile, are to be flighted and defpifed, never should I have exposed myfelf to fo many and fo great conficts for your prefervation, nor to the daily rage. and violence of the most worthless of men. But on this head books are full, the voice of the wife is full, antiquity is full; all which, were it not for the lamp of learning, would be involved in thick obfcurity. How many pictures of the bravest of men have the Greek and Latin writers left us, not only to contemplate, but likewife to imitate? Thefe illuftrious models I always fet before me in the government of the ftate, and formed my conduct by contemplating their virtues. But were thofe great men, it will be afked, who are celebrated in hiftory, diftinguished for that kind of learning, which you extol fo highly? It were difficult, indeed, to prove this of them all; but what I fhall answer is, however, very certain. I own, then, that there have been many men of excellent difpofitions and diftinguished virtue, who, without learning, and by the almoft divine force of nature herself, have been wife and moderate; nay, farther, that nature without learning is of greater efficacy towards the attainment of glory and virtue, than learning without nature; but then, I affirm, that when to an excellent natural difpofition the embellishments of learning are added, there refults from this union fomething great and extraordinary. Such was that divine U u 3 man, man Africanus, whom our fathers faw; fuch were C. Lælius and L. Furius, perfons of the greatest temperance and moderation; fuch was old Cato, a man of great bravery, and, for the times, of great learning; who, furely, would never have applied to the study of learning, had they thought it of no fervice towards the acquifition and improvement of virtue. But were pleasure only to be derived from learning, without the advantages we have mentioned, you muft ftill, I imagine, allow it to be a very liberal and polite amufement. For other ftudies are not fuited to every time, to every age, and to every place; but thefe give ftrength in youth, and joy in old age: adorn profperity, and are the fupport and confolation of adverfity; at home they are delightful, and abroad they are eafy; at night they are company to us; when we travel they attend us; and, in our rural retirements they do not forfake us. Though we Though we ourfelves were incapable of them, and had no relish for their charms, fitill we fhould admire them when we fee them in others. Was there any of us fo void of taste, and of fo unfeeling a temper, as not to be affected lately with the death of Rofcius? For though he died in an advanced age, yet fuch was the excellence and inimitable beauty of his art, that we thought him worthy of living for ever. Was he then fo great a favourite with us all on account of the graceful motions of his body; and fhall we be infenfible to the furprising energy of the mind, and the fprightly fallies of genius? How often have I feen this Archias, my lords, (for I will prefume on your goodness, as you are pleafed to favour me with fo much attention in this unufual manner of pleading) how often, I fay, have I feen him, without ufing his pen, and without any labour or ftudy, make a great number of excellent verfes on cccafional fubjects? How often, when a fubject was refumed, have I heard him give it a different turn of thought and expref. fion, whilft thofe compofitions which he finished with care and exactnefs were as highly approved as the most celebrated writers of antiquity. And fhall not I love this man? Shall I not admire him? Shall I not defend him to the utmolt of my power? For men of the greatest eminence and learning have taught us, that other branches of fcience require education, art, and precept; but that a poet is formed by the plastic hand of nature herfelf, is quickened by the native fire of genius, and animated as it were by a kind of divine enthufiafm. It is with juftice, therefore, that our Ennius beftows upon poets the epithet of vencrable, because they feem to have fome peculiar gifts of the gods to recommend them to us. Let the name of poet then, which the most barbarous nations have never prophaned, be revered by you, my lords, who are fo great admirers of polite learning. Rocks and defarts re-echo founds; favage beats are cften foothed by mufic, and liften to its charms; and fhall we, with all the advantages of the best education, be unaffected with the voice of poetry? The Calophonians give out that Homer is their countryman, the Chians declare that he is theirs, the Salaminians lay claim to him, the people of Smyrna affirm that Smyrna gave him breath, and have accordingly dedicated a temple to him in their city: befides these, many other nations contend warmly for this honour. Do they then lay claim to a ftranger even after his death, on account of his being a poet; and fhall we reject this living poet, who is a Roman both by inclination and the laws of Rome; especially as he has employed the utmost efforts of his genius to celebrate the glory and grandeur of the Roman people? For, in his youth, he fung the triumphs of C. Marius over the Cimbri, and even pleafed that great general, who had but little relish for the charms of poetry. Nor is there any perfon fo great an enemy to the Mules, as not readily to allow the poet to blazon his fame, and confecrate his actions to immortality. Themistocles, that celebrated Athenian, upon being asked what music, or whofe voice was molt agreeable to him, is reported to have aufwered, that man's who could beft celebrate his virtues. The fame Marins too had a very high regard for L. Plotius, whofe genius, he thought, was capable of doing juftice to his actions. But Archias has defcribed the whole Mithridatic war; a war of fuch danger and importance, and fo very memorable for the great variety of its events both by fea and land. Nor does his poem reflect honour only on L. Lucullus, that very brave and renowned man, but likewile adds luftre to the Roman name. For, under Lucullus, the Roman people penetrated into Pontus, impregnable till then by means of its fituation and the arms of of its monarchs; under him, the Romans, with no very confiderable force, routed the numberless troops of the Armenians; under his conduct too, Rome has the glory of delivering Cyzicum, the city of our faithful allies, from the rage of a monarch, and refcoing it from the devouring jaws of a mighty war. The praifes of our fleet fall ever be recorded and celebrated, for the wonders performed at Tenedos, where the eremy's hips were funk, and their commanders flain: fuch are our trophies, fuch our monuments, fuch our triumphs. Thofe, therefore, whofe genius defcribes thefe exploits, celebrate likewife the praifes of the Roman name. Our Ennius was greatly beloved by the elder Africanus, and accordingly he is thought to have a marble ftatue amongst the monuments of the Scipio's. But thofe prailes are not appropriated to the immediate fubjects of them; the whole Roman people have a fhare in them. Cato, the ancestor of the judge here prefent, is highly celebrated for his virtues, and from this the Romans themfelves derive great honour in a word, the Maximi, the Marcelli, the Fulvii, cannot be praised without praifing every Roman. were equal to his fortune, confer the freedom of Rome, in the prefence of a military aflembly, upon Theophanes of Mitylene, who fung his triumpns? And thefe Romans of ours, men brave indeed, but unpolished and mere foldiers, moved with the charms of glory, gave fhouts of applaufe, as if they had thared in the honour of their leader. Is it to be fuppofed then, that Archias, if cur laws had not made him a citizen of Rome, could not have obtained his freedom from fome general? Would Sylla, who conferred the rights of citizenship on Gauls and Spaniard, have refufed the fuit of Archias? That Sylla, whom we faw in an affembly, when a bad poet, of obfcure birth, prefented him a petition upon the merit of having written an epigram in his praife of unequal hobbling verfes, order him to be inftantly rewarded out of an eftate he was felling at the time, on condition he should write no more verfes. Would he, who even thought the induftry of a bad poet worthy of fome reward, not have been fond of the genius, the fpirit, and eloquence of Archias? Could our poet, neither by his own intereft, nor that of the Luculli, have obtained from his intimate friend Q. Metellus Pius the freedom of Rome, which he bestowed to frequently upon others? Efpecially as Metellus was fo very defirous of having his actions celebrated, that he was even fomewhat pleafed with the dull and barbarous verfes of the poets born at Corduba. Did our ancestors then confer the freedom of Rome on him who fung the praifes of her heroes, on a native of Rudia; and fhall we thrust this Heraclean out of Rome, who has been courted by many cities, and whom our laws have made a Roman? For if any one imagines that lefs glory is derived from the Greek, than from the Latin poet, he is greatly mistaken; the Greek language is understood in almoft every nation, whereas the Latin is confined to Latin territories, territories extremely narrow. Ifour exploits, therefore, have reached the utmost limits of the earth, we ought to be defirous that our glory and fame should extend as far as our arms; for as thefe operate powerfully on the people whofe actions are recorded; fo to thofe who expose their lives for the fake of glory, they are the grand motives to toils and dangers. How many perfons is Alexander the Great reported to have carried along with him, to write his hiftory! And yet, when he stood by the tomb of Achilles at Sigæum, "Happy youth," he cried, "who could find a Homer to blazon thy fame!" And what he faid was true; for had it not been for the Iliad, his afhes and . fame had been buried in the fame tomb. Did not Pompey the Great, whofe virtues Nor ought we to diffemble this truth, which cannot be concealed, but declare it openly we are all influenced by the love of praife, and the greateft minds have the greateft paffion for glory. The philofophers themfelves prefix their names to thofe books which they write upon the contempt of glory; by which they fhew that they are defirous of praife and fame, while they affect to defpife them. Decimus Brutus, that great commander and excellent man, adorned the monuments of his family, and the gates of his temples, with the verfes of his intimate friend Attius: and Fulvius, who made war with the Etolians attended by Ennius, did not feruple to confecrate the fpoils of Mars to the Mufes. In that city, therefore, where generals, with their arms almost in their hands, have reverenced the fhrines of the mufes and the name of poets, furely magiftrates in their robes, and in times of peace, ought not to be averfe to honour U u 4 ing |