[44]
Brutus was prosecuting Cnaeus Plancus and had
produced two readers1 to show that Lucius Crassus,
who was counsel for the defence, in the speech
which he delivered on the subject of the colony of
Narbo had advocated measures contrary to those
which he recommended in speaking of the Servilian
law. Crassus, in reply, called for three readers and
gave them the dialogues of Brutus' father to read
out. One of these dialogues was represented as
taking place on his estate at Privernum, the second
on his estate at Alba, and the third on his estate at
Tibur. Crassus then asked where these estates were.
Now Brutus had sold them all, and in those days it
was considered somewhat discreditable to sell one's
[p. 463]
paternal acres. Similar attractive effects of narrative
may be produced by the narration of fables or at
times even of historical anecdotes.
1 Probably members of his household, employed on this occasion to read out passages from Crassus' previous speeches.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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