[120]
How was it that,—when the news of that resolution of the senate
which was passed in the temple of Virtue was fresh, and was brought to the
people while engaged in beholding the games, and to the actors on the stage,
in a very full house—that consummate actor, a man in truth who
always performs the best part in the republic as he does on the stage
weeping both from recent joy and also from a mixture of grief and regret for
me, pleaded my cause before the Roman people in much more impressive
language than I could possibly have pleaded for myself? For he gave a
representation of the genius of the great poet whose play was being acted
not merely by his art as an actor, but by his real grief. “What,
shall he who with a constant mind assisted and supported the state; who has
always stood on the side of the Greeks
* * *” He said that I had always stood on your side; he pointed to your ranks; he was encored by every body. “Who in a critical state of affairs, did not hesitate to expose his life, did not spare his own person or privileges
* * *.”
* * *” He said that I had always stood on your side; he pointed to your ranks; he was encored by every body. “Who in a critical state of affairs, did not hesitate to expose his life, did not spare his own person or privileges
* * *.”