Complete Works (Opera Omnia)

to that most fertile mind, not only did Juvenal attribute ridiculous poems, but Marcus Cato called him a ridiculous consul, and Papirius indeed called him either a skirmisher in battle or a consular jester. Schoock is referring here to Marcus Tullius Cicero, the famous Roman orator, who was frequently mocked by his political rivals despite his brilliance. Demosthenes, the prince of Greek orators, must be joined with Cicero. Concerning him, one may read these words in the Orator by Cicero himself, who otherwise is accustomed to admire him: Even Demosthenes himself does not satisfy us; for although he alone stands out among all in every kind of speaking, yet he does not always fill my ears. Let no one be angry with Aeschines, the rival of Demosthenes, who—with Dionysius of Halicarnassus partially applauding—criticized the diction of that supreme man as being too morose and overly labored.

Similarly, Strabo, the greatest of geographers, did not hesitate to write concerning Herodotus that he talks nonsense in his history and mixes prodigious fables into his speech as if for seasoning. What happened to Herodotus also befell Thucydides, whom Cicero acknowledges as a sincere and grand narrator of deeds, yet very many, as Flavius Josephus A first-century Romano-Jewish historian. testifies, accused him of various falsehoods.

Virgil [Virgilius Maro], whom Velleius Paterculus calls the prince of Latin poetry, incurred the unfavorable judgments not only of grammarians but of the leading men themselves. The Emperor Hadrian preferred the "dung" of Ennius to Virgil's gems original: "Ennii stercora." Quintus Ennius was an early Roman poet. Hadrian, known for his eccentric tastes, preferred Ennius's archaic, rough style over Virgil’s polished and "gem-like" perfection., and Caligula, the great-grandson of Augustus, set out to attack the divine Aeneid with insults and very nearly proscribed it.

Cornelius Tacitus, in praising whom Justus Lipsius A famous 16th-century humanist scholar who edited the works of Tacitus. could find no limit, and whom the Emperor Tacitus used to call his ancestor (if credit is to be given to Emilio Ferreto), did not write in sufficiently good Latin, and his diction, in the judgment of the eminent Andrea Alciati, compared to that of Paolo Giovio, is harsh and resembles a thicket of thorns.

Concerning Seneca the philosopher, that distinguished master of morals, Fabius Quintilianus delivers this judgment: that he was insufficiently diligent in philosophy, and used a corrupt style of speaking, breaking the weight of matters into tiny sen- The text cuts off here at the catchword "ten-", likely continuing as "sententiis" (sentences or maxims). Quintilian famously criticized Seneca's fragmented, epigrammatic style as a "corrupt" departure from the classical flow of Cicero.