| ita prorsus, inquit Brutus; sed ne de Scaevolae quidem tribunatu quicquam audivisse videor et eum conlegam Crassi credo fuisse. Omnibus quidem aliis, inquam, in magistratibus, sed tribunus anno post fuit eoque in Rostris sedente suasit Serviliam legem Crassus; nam censuram sine Scaevola gessit: eum enim magistratum nemo umquam Scaevolarum petivit. Sed haec Crassi cum edita oratio est, quam te saepe legisse certo scio, quattuor et triginta tum tum L : dum F, secl, Kayser habebat annos totidemque annis mihi aetate praestabat. His enim consulibus eam legem suasit quibus nati sumus, cum ipse esset Q. Caepione consule natus et C. Laelio, triennio ipso minor quam Antonius. Quod idcirco posui ut dicendi Latine prima maturitas in qua aetate exstitisset posset notari et intellegeretur iam ad summum paene esse perductam, ut eo nihil ferme quisquam addere posset, nisi qui a philosophia, a iure civili, ab historia fuisset instructior. | I believe so," replied Brutus: "but I have heard as little of the tribunate of Scaevola, though I must naturally suppose that he was the colleague of Crassus.""He was so," said I, "in all his other offices; but he was not tribune till the year after him; and when he sat on the rostra in that capacity, Crassus spoke in support of the Servilian law. I must observe, however, that Crassus had not Scaevola for his colleague as censor; for none of the Scaevolas ever sued for that office. But when the last-mentioned oration of Crassus was published (which I dare say you have frequently read) he was thirty-four years of age, which was exactly the difference between his age and mine. For he supported the law I have just been speaking of, in the very consulship under which I was born (106 B.C.); whereas he himself was born in the consulship of Q. Caepio, and C. Laelius (140 B.C.), about three years later than Antonius. I have particularly noticed this circumstance, to specify the time when the Roman eloquence attained its first maturity; and was actually carried to such a degree of perfection, as to leave no room for any one to carry it higher, unless by the assistance of a more complete and extensive knowledge of philosophy, jurisprudence, and history. |
