[a] Cassius Severus lived in the latter end of the reign of Augustus,
and through a considerable part of that of Tiberius. He was an orator,
according to Quintilian, who, if read with due caution, might serve as
a model worthy of imitation. It is to be regretted, that to the many
excellent qualities of his style he did not add more weight, more
strength and dignity, and thereby give colour and a body to his
sentiments. With those requisites, he would have ranked with the most
eminent orators. To his excellent genius he united keen reflection,
great energy, and a peculiar urbanity, which gave a secret charm to
his speeches. But the warmth of his temper hurried him on; he listened
more to his passions than to his judgement; he possessed a vein of
wit, but he mingled with it too much acrimony; and wit, when it misses
its aim, feels the mortification and the ridicule which usually attend
disappointed malice. _Multa, si cum judicio legatur, dabit imitatione
digna CASSIUS SEVERUS, qui, si cæteris virtutibus colorem et
gravitatem orationis adjecisset, ponendus inter præcipuos foret, Nam
et ingenii plurimum est in eo, et acerbitas mira, et urbanitas, et vis
summa; sed plus stomacho quàm consilio dedit; præterea ut amari sales,
ita frequenter amaritudo ipsa ridicula est._ Lib. x. cap. 1. We read
in Suetonius (_Life of Octavius_, s. 56), that Cassius had the
hardiness to institute a prosecution for the crime of poisoning
against Asprenas Nonius, who was, at the time, linked in the closest
friendship with Augustus. Not content with accusations against the
first men in Rome, he chose to vent his malevolence in lampoons and
defamatory libels, against the most distinguished of both sexes. It
was this that provoked Horace to declare war against Cassius, in an
ode (lib, v. ode 6), which begins, _Quid immerentes hospites vexas,
canis_. See an account of his malevolent spirit, _Annals_, b, i. s.
72. He was at length condemned for his indiscriminate abuse, and
banished by Augustus to the isle of Crete. But his satirical rage was
not to be controlled. He continued in exile to discharge his
malignity, till, at last, at the end of ten years, the senate took
cognizance of his guilt, and Tiberius ordered him to be removed from
Crete to the Rock of Seriphos, where he languished in old age and
misery. See _Annals_, b. iv. s. 21. The period of ancient oratory
ended about the time when Cassius began his career. He was the first
of the new school.
[b] These two rhetoricians flourished in the time of Augustus.
Apollodorus, we are told by Quintilian (b. iii. chap. 1), was the
preceptor of Augustus. He taught in opposition to Theodorus Gadareus,
who read lectures at Rhodes, and was attended by Tiberius during his
retreat in that island. The two contending masters were the founders
of opposite sects, called the _Apollodorean_ and _Theodorian_. But
true eloquence, which knows no laws but those of nature and good
sense, gained nothing by party divisions. Literature was distracted by
new doctrines; rhetoric became a trick in the hands of sophists, and
all sound oratory disappeared. Hermagoras, Quintilian says, in the
chapter already cited, was the disciple of Theodorus.