Tacitus, who entered into that war from motives of virtue. _Legioni
Vipstanius Messala praeerat, claris majoribus, egregius ipse, et qui
solus ad id bellum artes bonas attulisset._ _Hist._ lib. iii. s. 9. He
was brother to Regulus, the vile informer, who has been mentioned. See
Life of Agricola, section 2. note a, and this tract, s. xii. note [b].
Messala, we are told by Tacitus, before he had attained the senatorian
age, acquired great fame by pleading the cause of his profligate
brother with extraordinary eloquence, and family affection. _Magnam eo
die pietatis eloquentiaeque famam Vipstanius Messala adeptus est;
nondum senatoria aetate, ausus pro fratre Aquilio Regulo deprecari._
_Hist._ lib. iv. s. 42. Since Messala has now joined the company, the
Dialogue takes a new turn, and, by an easy and natural transition,
slides into the question concerning the causes of the decline of
eloquence.

[b] This is probably the same Asiaticus, who, in the revolt of the
provinces of Gaul, fought on the side of VINDEX. See _Hist._ b. ii. s.
94. Biography was, in that evil period, a tribute paid by the friends
of departed merit, and the only kind of writing, in which men could
dare faintly to utter a sentiment in favour of virtue and public
liberty.

[c] In the declamations of Seneca and Quintilian, we have abundant
examples of these scholastic exercises, which Juvenal has placed in a
ridiculous light.

Et nos ergo manum ferulae subduximus, et nos
Consilium dedimus Syllae, privatus ut altum
Dormiret.
Sat. i. ver. 15.

Provok'd by these incorrigible fools,
I left declaiming in pedantic schools;
Where, with men-boys, I strove to get renown,
Advising Sylla to a private gown.
DRYDEN'S JUVENAL.

Section XV.

[a] The eloquence of Cicero, and the eminent orators of that age, was
preferred by all men of sound judgement to the unnatural and affected
style that prevailed under the emperors. Quintilian gives a decided
opinion. Cicero, he says, was allowed to be the reigning orator of his
time, and his name, with posterity, is not so much that of a man, as
of eloquence itself. _Quare non immerito ab hominibus aetatis suae,
regnare in judiciis dictus est: apud posteros vero id consecutus, ut
Cicero jam non hominis, sed eloquentiae nomen habeatur._ Lib. x. cap.
1. Pliny the younger professed that Cicero was the orator with whom he
aspi