55.
[117]
And at that time it was shown plainly enough with reference to both parties
what were the real feelings of the Roman people in the first place when,
after having heard the resolution of the senate universal applause was given
to the proposer of the law and to the senate as a body, though it was not
present and secondly, when every individual senator, as he returned from the
senate to see the games, was received with loud clapping of hands. But, when
the consul himself, who was exhibiting the games, took his seat, then the
people stood undertaking him with extended hands, and with tears of joy
declared their good will towards and pity for me. But when that furious
enemy of mine with his senseless and frantic mind, arrived the Roman people
could hardly restrain itself; the men could hardly abstain from wreaking
their hatred on his foul and wicked person. Words indeed, and menacing
gestures of the hands and loud outcries in the war of abuse and of curses on
him were universal
[118]
But why need I speak of the disposition and courage of the Roman people,
looking back on their liberty after their long slavery, as shown by their
conduct towards that man, whom, though he was at that time standing for the
aedileship, even the actors did not spare to his face. For as the play being
exhibited was one of Roman life,—“The
Pretender,”1 I believe,—the whole troop of actors,
speaking in most splendid concert, and looking in the face of this
profligate man, laid the greatest emphasis on the words, “To such
a life as yours,” and, “The continued course and end of
your wicked life.” He sat frightened out of his wits; and he, who
formerly used to pack the assemblies which he summoned with bands of noisy
buffoons, was now driven away by the voices of these same players.
And since I have mentioned the games, I will not omit that circumstance, that
amid the great variety of sentences and apophthegms which occur in that
play, there was not one passage in which any expression of the poet had any
bearing on our times, which either escaped the notice of the main body of
the people, or on which particular emphasis was not laid by the actor.
[119]
And I entreat you, while speaking on
this topic, O judges, not to think that I am led by any levity of
disposition to an unusual description of oratory, if in a court of justice I
speak of poets, and actors, and games.
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
1 This was a play of Afranius, on the subject of the pretended madness of Junius Brutus, the expeller of the Tarquins.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.