s omitted; but we do know that the
Pro Milone exists for us, and that it lives among the glories of
language as a published oration. I find, on looking through the
Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, that in his estimation the Pro Milone
was the first in favor of all our author's orations--"facile princeps,"
if we may collect the critic's ideas on the subject from the number of
references made and examples taken. Quintilian's work consists of
lessons on oratory, which he supports by quotations from the great
orators, both Greek and Latin, with whose speeches he has made himself
familiar. Cicero was to him the chief of orators; so much so that we may
almost say that Quintilian's Institutio is rather a lecture in honor of
Cicero than a general lesson. With the Roman school-master's method of
teaching for the benefit of the Roman youth of the day we have no
concern at present, but we can gather from the references made by him
the estimation in which various orations were held by others, as well as
by him, in his day. The Pro Cluentio, which is twice as long as the Pro
Milone, and which has never, I think, been a favorite with modern
readers, is quoted very frequently by Quintilian. It is the second in
the list. Quintilian makes eighteen references to it; but the Pro Milone
is brought to the reader's notice thirty-seven times. Quintilian was
certainly a good critic; and he understood how to recommend himself to
his own followers by quoting excellences which had already been
acknowledged as the best which Roman literature had afforded.

Those who have gone before me in writing the life of Cicero have, in
telling their story as to Milo, very properly gone to Asconius for their
details. As I must do so too, I shall probably not diverge far from
them. Asconius wrote as early as in the reign of Claudius, and had in
his possession the annals of the time which have not come to us. Among
other writings he could refer to those books of Livy which have since
been lost. He seems to have done his work as commentator with no glow of
affection and with no touch of animosity, either on one side or on the
other. There can be no reason for doubting the impartiality of Asconius
as to Milo's trial, and every reason for trusting his knowledge of the
facts.

[Sidenote: B.C. 52, aetat. 55.]

When the year began, no Consuls had been chosen, and an interrex became
necessary--one interrex after another--to make the election of Consuls
possible in