as cotemporary with
Aristarchus [848], and having been sent by king Attalus as envoy to the
senate in the interval between the second and third Punic wars [849],
soon after the death of Ennius [850], he had the misfortune to fall into
an open sewer in the Palatine quarter of the city, and broke his leg.
After which, during the whole period of his embassy and convalescence, he
gave frequent lectures, taking much pains to instruct his hearers, and he
has left us an example well worthy of imitation. It was so far followed,
that poems hitherto little known, the works either of deceased friends or
other approved writers, were brought to light, and being read and
commented on, were explained to others. Thus, Caius Octavius Lampadio
edited the Punic War of Naevius [851], which having been written in one
volume without any break in the manuscript, he divided into seven books.
After that, Quintus Vargonteius undertook the Annals of Ennius, which he
read on certain fixed days to crowded audiences. So Laelius Archelaus,
and Vectius Philocomus, read and commented on the Satires of their friend
Lucilius [852], which Lenaeus Pompeius, a freedman, tells us he studied
under Archelaus; and Valerius Cato, under Philocomus. Two others also
taught and promoted (508) grammar in various branches, namely, Lucius
Aelius Lanuvinus, the son-in-law of Quintus Aelius, and Servius Claudius,
both of whom were Roman knights, and men who rendered great services both
to learning and the republic.

III. Lucius Aelius had a double cognomen, for he was called Praeconius,
because his father was a herald; Stilo, because he was in the habit of
composing orations for most of the speakers of highest rank; indeed, he
was so strong a partisan of the nobles, that he accompanied Quintus
Metellus Numidicus [853] in his exile. Servius [854] having
clandestinely obtained his father-in-law's book before it was published,
was disowned for the fraud, which he took so much to heart, that,
overwhelmed with shame and distress, he retired from Rome; and being
seized with a fit of the gout, in his impatience, he applied a poisonous
ointment to his feet, which half-killed him, so that his lower limbs
mortified while he was still alive. After this, more attention was paid
to the science of letters, and it grew in public estimation, insomuch,
that men of the highest rank did not hesitate in undertaking to write
something on the subject; and it is related that sometimes th