[25]
And those brave men, our countrymen, soldiers and
country bred men as they were, still being moved by the sweetness of glory, as if they were to
some extent partakers of the same renown, showed their approbation of that action with a great
shout. Therefore, I suppose, if Archias were not a Roman citizen according to the laws, he
could not have contrived to get presented with the freedom of the city by some general! Sulla,
when he was giving it to the Spaniards and Gauls, would, I suppose, have refused him if he had
asked for it! a man whom we ourselves saw in the public assembly, when a bad poet of the
common people had put a book in his hand, because he had made an epigram on him with every
other verse too long, immediately ordered some of the things which he was selling at the
moment to be given him as a reward, on condition of not writing anything more about him for
the future. Would not he who thought the industry of a bad poet still worthy of
some reward, have sought out the genius, and excellence, and copiousness in writing of this
man?
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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