Excited and, I say say, full of enthusiasm, Maternus had hardly finished
when Vipstanus Messala entered his room, and, from the earnest expression on
each face, he conjectured that their conversation was unusually serious.
Have I, he asked, come among you unseasonably, while you are engaged in
private deliberation, or the preparation of some case?
By no means, by
no means, said Secundus. Indeed I could wish you had come sooner, for you
would have been delighted with the very elaborate arguments of our friend
Aper, in which he urged Maternus to apply all his ability and industry to
the pleading of causes, and then too with Maternus's apology for his poems
in a lively speech, which as suited a poet's defence, was uncommonly
spirited, and more like poetry than oratory.
For my part, he replied, I
should have been infinitely charmed by the discourse, and I am delighted to
find that
you excellent men, the orators of our age, instead of
exercising your talents simply on law-business and rhetorical studies, also
engage in discussions which not only strengthen the intellect but also draw
from learning and from letters a pleasure most exquisite both to you who
discuss such subjects and to those too whose ears your words may reach.
Hence the world, I see, is as much pleased with you, Secundus, for having by
your life of Julius Asiaticus given it the promise of more such books, as it
is with Aper for having not yet retired from the disputes of the schools,
and for choosing to employ his leisure after the fashion of modern
rhetoricians rather than of the old orators.