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You remember what old Tully says in his oration, pro Archia poeta, concerning one of your confraternity quis nostrum tam anino agresti ac duro fuit ut ut I forget the Latin the meaning is, which of us was so rude and barbarous as to remain unmoved at the death of the great Roscius, whose advanced age was so far from preparing us for his death, that we rather hoped one so graceful, so excellent in his art, ought to be exempted from the common lot of mortality?
I had not been there long when a gentleman, strolling about, passed near me, and observing, perhaps, something Irish or foreign in my garb or countenance, addressed me: 'Sir, you seem studious; I hope you find this a favorable place to pursue it. 'Not very studious, sir; I fear it is the want of society that brings me hither; I am solitary and unknown in this metropolis'; and a passage from Cicero Oratio pro Archia occurring to me, I quoted it; 'Haec studia pronoctant nobiscum, perigrinantur, rusticantur. 'You are a scholar, too, sir, I perceive. 'A piece of one, sir; but I ought still to have been in the college where I had the good fortune to pick up the little I know. A good deal of conversation ensued; I told him part of my history, and he, in return, gave his address in the Temple, desiring me to call soon, from which, to my infinite surprise and gratification, I found that the person who thus seemed to take an interest in my fate was my countryman, and a distinguished ornament of letters.
This may be only bar gossip; true or false, his defence is an extraordinary masterpiece of oratorical skill. The manner in which Cicero conducted a defence when the cause was not so grave or so desperate is well illustrated by a speech delivered four years later, the Pro Archia. The case here was one of contested citizenship.
There the poet would find a complete panoply of arms forged for the arousing of the feelings in an audience, and for stirring the springs of action. He could make his readers hate sin by the same means Demosthenes made his hearers hate Philip, and love any virtue by appropriating the methods of Cicero Pro Archia. According to this belief, the difference between poetic and rhetoric was minimized.
The Pro Archia foreshadows already the change which was bound to take place in Cicero's life, and which was precipitated by his exile four years later.
You remember what old Tully says in his oration, pro Archia poeta, concerning one of your confraternity quis nostrum tam anino agresti ac duro fuit ut ut I forget the Latin the meaning is, which of us was so rude and barbarous as to remain unmoved at the death of the great Roscius, whose advanced age was so far from preparing us for his death, that we rather hoped one so graceful, so excellent in his art, ought to be exempted from the common lot of mortality?
When the Lawrences stopped, I knew that the doubts of the old folks about book-learning had conquered again, and so, toiling up the hill, and getting as far into the cabin as possible, I put Cicero pro Archia Poeta into the simplest English with local applications, and usually convinced them for a week or so.
There is another word which Cicero uses for I have still somewhat more to say of that passage from the oration "pro Archia poeta" the word "rusticantur," which indicates that civilization twenty centuries ago made a practice of taking books out into the country for summer reading.
When the Lawrences stopped, I knew that the doubts of the old folks about book-learning had conquered again, and so, toiling up the hill, and getting as far into the cabin as possible, I put Cicero "pro Archia Poeta" into the simplest English with local applications, and usually convinced them for a week or so.
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