[a] For an account of Caius Gracchus, see s. xviii. note [d].
[b] For Lucius Crassus, see s. xviii. note [f].
[c] The false taste of Mæcenas has been noted by the poets and critics
who flourished after his death. His affected prettinesses are compared
to the prim curls, in which women and effeminate men tricked out their
hair. Seneca, who was himself tainted with affectation, has left a
beautiful epistle on the very question that makes the main subject of
the present Dialogue. He points out the causes of the corrupt taste
that debauched the eloquence of those times and imputes the mischief
to the degeneracy of the manners. Whatever the man was, such was the
orator. _Talis oratio quails vita._ When ancient discipline relaxed,
luxury succeeded, and language became delicate, brilliant, spangled
with conceits. Simplicity was laid aside, and quaint expressions grew
into fashion. Does the mind sink into languor, the body moves
reluctantly. Is the man softened into effeminacy, you see it in his
gait. Is he quick and eager, he walks with alacrity. The powers of the
understanding are affected in the same manner. Having laid this down
as his principle, Seneca proceeds to describe the soft delicacy of
Mæcenas, and he finds the same vice in his phraseology. He cites a
number of the lady-like terms, which the great patron of letters
considered as exquisite beauties. In all this, says he, we see the man
who walked the streets of Rome in his open and flowing robe. _Nonne
statim, cum hæc legis, occurrit hunc esse, qui solutis tunicis in urbe
semper incesserit?_ Seneca, epist. cxiv. What he has said of Mæcenas
is perfectly just. The fopperies of that celebrated minister are in
this Dialogue called CALAMISTRI; an allusion borrowed from Cicero,
who praises the beautiful simplicity of _Cæsar's Commentaries_, and
says there were men of a vicious taste, who wanted to apply the
_curling-iron_, that is, to introduce the glitter of conceit and
antithesis in the place of truth and nature. _Commentarios quosdam
scripsit rerum suarum, valde quidem probandos: nudi enim sunt, et
recti, et venusti, omni ornatu orationis, tanquam veste, detracto.
Ineptis gratum fortasse fecit, qui volunt illa_ CALAMISTRIS _inurere._
Cicero _De Claris Orat._ s. 262.
[d] Who Gallio was, is not clearly settled by the commentators.
Quintilian, lib. iii. cap. 1, makes mention of Gallio, who wrote a
treatise of eloquence; and in the _Annals_, b. xv. s. 73, we find
Junius Gallio, the brother of Seneca; but whether either of them is
the person here intended, remains uncertain. Whoever he was, his
eloquence was a tinkling cymbal. Quintilian says of such orators, who
are all inflated, tumid, corrupt, and jingling, that their malady does
not proceed from a full and rich constitution, but from mere
infirmity; for,
As in bodies, thus in souls we find,
What wants in blood and spirits, swell'd with wind.
_Nam tumidos, et corruptos, et tinnulos, et quocumque alio cacozeliæ
genere peccantes, certum habeo, non virium, sed infirmitatis vitio
laborare: ut corpora non robore, sed valetudine inflantur._ Quintil.
lib. ii. cap. 3.
[e] Pliny declares, without ceremony, that he was ashamed of the
corrupt effeminate style that disgraced the courts of justice, and
made him think of withdrawing from the forum. He calls it sing-song,
and says that nothing but musical instruments could be added. _Pudet
referre, quæ quam fractâ pronunciatione dicantur; quibus quam teneris
clamoribus excipiantur. Plausus tantum, ac sola cymbala et tympana,
illis canticis desunt._ Pliny, lib. ii. epist. 14. The chief aim of
Persius in his first satire is levelled against the bad poets of his
time, and also the spurious orators, who enervated their eloquence by
antithesis, far-fetched metaphors, and points of wit, delivered with
the softest tone of voice, and ridiculous airs of affectation.
Fur es, ait Pedio: Pedius quid? Crimina rasis
Librat in antithetis; doctus posuisse figuras
Laudatur. Bellum hoc! hoc bellum! an Romule ceves?
Men' moveat quippe, et, cantet si naufragus, assem
Protulerim? Cantas, cum fractâ te in trabe pictum
Ex humero portes?
PERSIUS, sat. i. ver. 85.
Theft, says the accuser, to thy charge I lay,
O Pedius. What does gentle Pedius say?
Studious to please the genius of the times,
With periods, points, and tropes, he slurs his crimes.
He lards with flourishes his long harangue:
'Tis fine, say'st thou. What! to be prais'd, and hang?
Effeminate Roman! shall such stuff prevail,
To tickle thee, and make thee wag thy tail?
Say, should a shipwreck'd sailor sing his woe,
Wouldst thou be mov'd to pity, and bestow
An alms? What's more prepost'rous than to see
A merry beggar? wit in misery!
DRYDEN'S PERSIUS.
[f] For Cassius Severus, see s. xix. note [a].
[g] Gabinianus was a teacher of rhetoric in the reign of Vespasian.
Eusebius, in his Chronicon, eighth of Vespasian, says that Gabinianus,
a celebrated rhetorician, was a teacher of eloquence in Gaul.
_Gabinianus, celeberrimi nominis rhetor, in Galliâ docuit._ His
admirers deemed him another Cicero, and, after him, all such orators
were called CICERONES GABISTIANI.