M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
times on the good side in politics? Who a fouler enemy to this state? Who more polluted in his pleasures? Who more enduring in his labours? Who more greedy in his rapacity? Who more lavish in his prodigality? Even eight sentences in succession begin with the same word. Notice this also, if you will, and turn it over in your mind whether, compared to all the embellishment and passion, that neutral phrase—to share what he had with all[1]—be not a blemish; for to me this seems a little too dry and commonplace.
3. After those passages of Tullius and Sallust on Catiline I thought it not wholly irrelevant to exhibit what L. Antonius . . . . says: whom besides a veteran army a great part of the young men followed with eager enthusiasm. Therefore, in using this figure you would do just what a painter, who had never tried to paint a horse . . . . . . . . . . . .[† 1]
4. The sketch of Jugurtha is as follows:
As soon as he grew up, endowed with bodily strength, a handsome person, but above all with a powerful intellect, he did not give himself up to the seductions of luxury and idleness, but, as is the way with that nation, rode, threw the dart, and challenged his peers in the race; and though he outstripped all in glory, yet was he a favourite with all. Besides he spent much time in the chase and was the first, or among the first, to strike the lion or other wild beasts, and doing the most he still said the least about himself.[2] . . . . For Jugurtha, possessed as he was of a vigorous
- ↑ Cicero, Pro Cael. 6. The passage continues: Illa vero iudices, in illo homine mirabilia fuerunt, comprehendere multos amicitia, tueri obsequio; cum omnibus communicare quod habebat; servire temporibus omnium suorum, etc.
- ↑ Sallust, Jug. 6, § 1.
- ↑ About a hundred letters are lost.
