flowed the freedom of its cities, without the recommendation of merit, upon perfons of little confideration, and those who had either no employment at all, or very mean ones, is it to be imagined that the inhabitants of Rhegium, Locris, Naples, or Tarentum, would deny to a man so highly celebrated for his genius, what they conferred even upon comedians? When others, not only after Silanus's law, but even after the Papian law, fhall have found means to creep into the registers of the municipal cities, shall he be rejected, who, because he was always defrous of passing for an Heraclean, never availed himself of his being enrolled in other cities? But you defire to fee the enrolment of our estate; as if it were not well known, that under the last censorship the defendant was with the army commanded by that renowned general L. Lu. culus; that under the consorship immediately preceding, he was with the fame Lucullus then questor in Afia; and that, when Julius and Crafsus were cenfors, there was no enrolment made? But, as an enrolment in the cenfors books does not confirm the right of citizenship, and only fhews that the perfon enrolled affumed the character of a citizen, I must tell you that Archias made a will according to our laws, fucceeded to the estates of Roman citizens, and was recommended to the treasury by L. Lucullus, both when prætor and conful, as one who deserved well of the state, at the very time when you alledge that, by his own confeflion, he had no right to the

freedom of Rome.

Find out whatever arguments you can, Archias will never be convicted for his own conduct, nor that of his friends. But you'll no doubt ask the reason, Gracchus, of my being so highly delighted with this man? Why, it is because he furnishes me with what relieves my mind, and charms my ears, after the fatigue and noise of the forum. Do you imagine that I could poffibly plead every day on fuch a variety of subjects, if my mind was not cultivated with science; or that it could bear being stretched to such a degree, if it were not fometimes unbent by the amusements of learning. I am fond of these studies, I own: let those be ashamed who have bu ried themselves in learning so as to be of no use to fociety, nor able to produce any thing to public view; but why should I be ashamed, who for fo many years, my lords, have never been prevented by in

dolence, feduced by pleasure, nor diverted by fleep, from doing good offices to others? Who then can cenfure me, or in judice be angry with me, if those hours which others employ in business, in p'eafures, in celebrating public folemnities, in refreshing the body and unbending the mind; if the time which is fpent by fome in midnight banquetings, in diverfions, and in gaming, 1 employ in reviewing these studies? And this application is the more excufable, as I derive no finall advantages from it in my profeflion, in which, whatever abilities I poffefs, they have always been employed when the dangers of my friends called for their afsistance. If they should appear to any to be but small, there are still other advantages of a much higher nature, and I am very fenfible whence I derive them. For had I not been convinced from my youth, by much inftruction and much study, that nothing is greatly defirable in life but g'ory and virtue, and that, in the pursuit of thefe, all bodily tortures, and the perils of death and exile, are to be flighted and defpifed, never should I have exposed my-. felf to fo many and fo great condicts for your prefervation, nor to the daily rage and violence of the most worthless of men. But on this head books are full, the voice of the wife is full, antiquity is full; all which, were it not for the lamp of learning, would be involved in thick obfcurity. How many pictures of the bravest of men have the Greek and Latin writers left us, not only to contemplate, but likewife to imitate? These illustrious models I always set before me in the government of the state, and formed my conduct by contemplating their virtues.

But were those great men, it will be asked, who are celebrated in hiftory, ditlin guished for that kind of learning, which you extol fo highly? It were difficult, indeed, to prove this of them all; bat what I shall answer is, however, very certain. I own, then, that there have been many men of excellent dispositions and diftinguished virtue, who, without learning, and by the almost divine force of nature herself, have been wife and moderate; nav, farther, that nature without learning is of greater efficacy towards the attainment of glory and virtue, than learning without nature; but then, I affirm, that when to an excellent natural disposition the embellishments of learning are added, there results from this union something great and extraordinary. Such was that divine Uu3

of its monarchs; under him, the Romans, with no very confiderable force, routed the numberless troops of the Armenians; under his conduct too, Rome has the glory of delivering Cyzicum, the city of our faithful allies, from the rage of a monarch, and rescuing it from the devouring jaws of a mighty war. The praises of our flect shall ever be recorded and celebrated, for the wonders performed at Tenedos, where the enemy's ships were funk, and their commanders flain: fuch are our trophies, fuch our monuments, such our triumphs. Those, therefore, whose genius describes these exploits, celebrate likewise the praises of the Roman name. Our Ennius was greatly beloved by the elder Africanus, and accordingly he is thought to have a marble ftatue amongst the monuments of the Scipio's. But those praises are not appropriated to the immediate fubjects of them; the whole Roman people have a share in them. Cato, the ancestor of the judge here present, is highly celebrated for his virtues, and from this the Romans themselves derive great honour: in word, the Maximi, the Marcelli, the Fulvii, cannot be praised without praising every Roman.

a

Did our ancestors then confer the freedom of Rome on him who sung the praises of her heroes, on a native of Rudiæ; and shall we thrust this Heraclean out of Rome, who has been courted by many cities, and whom our laws have made a Roman? For if any one imagines that less glory is derived from the Greek, than from the Latin poet, he is greatly mistaken; the Greek language is understood in almost every nation, whereas the Latin is confined to Latin territories, territories extremely narrow. If our exploits, therefore, have reach ed the utmost limits of the earth, we ought to be defirous that our glory and fame should extend as far as our arms; for as these operate powerfully on the people whose actions are recorded; fo to those who expose their lives for the fake of glory, they are the grand motives to toils and dangers. How many persons is Alexander the Great reported to have carried along with him, to write his history! And yet, when he stood by the tomb of Achilles at Sigæum, "Happy youth," he cried, " who could find a Homer to blazon thy fame!" And what he said was true; for had it not been for the Iliad, his ashes and fame had been buried in the fame tomb. Did not Pompey the Great, whose virtues

were equal to his fortune, confer the freedom of Rome, in the prefence of a military affembly, upon Theophanes of Mitylene, who fung his triumphs? And these Romans of ours, men brave indeed, but unpolished and mere foldiers, moved with the charms of glory, gave shouts of applause, as if they had shared in the honour of their leader. Is it to be supposed then, that Archias, if our laws had not made him a citizen of Rome, could not have obtained his freedom from fome general? Would Sylla, who conferred the rights of citizenship on Gauls and Spaniards, have refused the fuit of Archias? That Sylla, whom we faw in an affembly, when a bad poet, of obscure birth, presented him a petition upon the merit of having written an epigram in his praise of unequal hobbling verses, order him to be instantly rewarded out of an eftate he was felling at the time, on condition he should write no more verses. Would he, who even thought the industry of a bad poet worthy of fome reward, not have been fond of the genius, the fpirit, and eloquence of Archias? Could our poet, neither by his own intereft, nor that of the Luculli, have obtained from his intimate friend Q. Metellus Pius the freedom of Rome, which he bestowed so frequently upon others? Especially as Metellus was so very defirous of having his actions celebrated, that he was even fomewhat pleased with the dull and barbarous verses of the poets born at Corduba.

Nor ought we to dissemble this truth, which cannot be concealed, but declare it openly: we are all influenced by the love of praise, and the greatest minds have the greatest paffion for glory. The philosophers themselves prefix their names to those books which they write upon the contempt of glory; by which they shew that they are defirous of praise and fame, while they affect to despise them. Decimus Brutus, that great commander and excellent man, adorned the monuments of his family, and the gates of his temples, with the verses of his intimate friend Attius: and Fulvius, who made war with the Ætolians attended by Ennius, did not scruple to confecrate the spoils of Mars to the Muses. In that city, therefore, where generals, with their arms almost in their hands, have reverenced the shrines of the muses and the name of poets, furely magistrates in their robes, and in times of peace, ought not to be averse to honourUu4 ing

ing the one, or protecting the other. And to engage you the more readily to this, my lords, I will lay open the very fentiments of my heart before you, and freely confefs my paffion for glory, which, though too keen, perhaps, is however virtuous. For what I did in conjunction with you during my confulship, for the safety of this city and empire, for the lives of my fellowcitizens, and for the interests of the state, Archias intends to celebrate in verse, and has actually begun his poem. Upon reading what he has wrore, it appeared to me so fublime, and gave me so much pleasure, that I encouraged him to go on with it. For virtue defires no other reward for her toils and dangers, but praise and glory: take but this away, my lords, and what is there left in this short, this scanty career of human life, that can tempt us to engage in fo many and fo great labours? Surely, if the mind had no thought of futurity, if the confined all her views within those linits which bound our present exiftence, the would neither waite her strength in so great toils, nor harass herself with to many cares and watchings, nor ftruggle fo often for life itself: but there is a certain principle in the breast of every good man, which both day and night quickens him to the pursuit of glory, and puts him in mind that his fame is not to be meafured by the extent of his present life, but that it runs parallel with the line of pofterity.

Can we, who are engaged in the affairs of the ftate, and in fo many toils and dangers, think fo meanly as to imagine that, after a life of uninterrupted care and trouble, nothing shall remain of us after death? If many of the greatest men have been careful to leave their statues and pictures, these representations not of their minds but of their bodies; ought not we to be much more defirous of leaving the portraits of our enterprizes and virtues drawn and finished by the most eminent artists? As for me, I have always imagined, whilst I was engaged in doing whatever I have done, that I was spreading my actions over the whole earth, and that they would be held in eternal remembrance. But whether I shall lose my confciousness of this at death, or whether, as the wisest men have thought, I shall retain it after, at present the thought delights me, and my mind is filled with pleasing hopes. Do not then deprive us, my lords, of a man, whom modeity, a graceful manner, engag

ing behaviour, and the affections of his friends, so strongly recommended; the greatness of whose genius may be estimated from this, that he is courted by the most eminent men of Rome; and whose plea is fuch, that it has the law in its favour, the authority of a municipal town, the teslimony of Lucullus, and the register of Metellus. This being the cafe, we beg of you, my lords, fince in matters of fuch importance, not only the interceffion of men but of gods is necessary, that the man, who has always celebrated your virtues, those of your generals, and the victories of the Roman people; who declares that he will raise eternal monuments to your praise and mine for our conduct in our late domeftic dangers; and who is of the number of those that have ever been accounted and pronounced divine, may be so protected by you, as to have greater reason to applaud your generofity, than to complain of your rigour. What I have faid, my lords, concerning this caufe, with my usual brevity and fimplicity, is, I am confident, approved by all: what I have advanced upon poetry in general, and the genius of the defendant, contrary to the ufage of the forum and the bar, will, I hope, be taken in good part by you; by him who prefides upon the bench, I am convinced it will.

This beautiful oration was made in the 55th year of Cicero's age, upon the following occafion. In the year of Rome 701, T. Annius Milo, Q Metellus Scipio, and P. Plautius Hypfæus, stood candidates for the confulship; and, according to Plutarch, pushed on their several interests with fuch open violence and bribery, as if it had been to be carried only by money or arms. P. Clodius, Milo's professed enemy, stood at the same time for the prætorship, and used all his interest to disappoint Milo, by whose obtaining the confulship he was fure to be controuled in the exercise of his magiftracy. The senate and the better fort were generally in Milo's interest; and Cicero, in particular, served him with distinguished zeal: three of the tribunes were violent against him, the other seven were his fast friends; above all M. Cælius, who, out of regard to Cicero, was very active in his service. But whilit matters were proceeding in a very favourable train for him, and nothing seemed wanting to crown his fucceis, but to bring on the election, which his adversaries, for that reason, endeavoured to keep back; all his hopes and fortunes were blasted at once by an unhappy rencounter with Clodius, in which Clodius was killed by his fervants, and by his command. His body was left in the Appian road, where it fell, but was taken up foon after by Tedius, a fenator, who happened to come by, and brought to Rome; where it was exposed, all covered with blood and wounds, to the view of the populace, who flocked about in crowds to lament the miferable fate of their leader. The next day, Sextus Clodius, a kinsman of the decealed, and one of his chief incendiaries, together with the three tribunes, Mi o's enemies, employed all the arts of party and faction to in flame the mob, which they did to fuch a height of fury, that, fnatching up the body, they ran away with it into the fenate-house, and tearing up the benches, tables, and every thing combuftible, dressed up a funeral pile upon the spot; and, together with the body, burnt the house itself, with a bafilica or public hall adjoining. Several other outrages were committed, fo that the fenate were obliged to pass a decree, that the inter-rex, affifted by the tribunes and Pompey, should take care that the republic received no detriment; and that Pompey, in particular, should raise a body of troops for the common security, which he presently drew together from all parts of Italy. Amidit this confufion, the rumour of a dictator being industriously fpread, and alarming the senate, they refolved presently to create Pompey the fingle conful, whose election was accordingly declared by the inter-rex, after an inter-regnum of near two months. Pompey applied himself immediately to quiet the public diforders, and published several new laws, prepared by him for that purpose; one of them was, to appoint a ipecial commission to enquire into Clodius's death, &c. and to appoint

an extraordinary judge, of confular rank, to prefide in it. He attended Milo's trial himself with a strong guari, to preferve peace. The ac-. cufers were young Appius, the nephew of Clodius, M. Antonius, and P. Valerius. Cicero was the only advocate on Milo's fide; but as foon as he rofe up to speak, he was received with fo rude a clamour by the Clodians, that he was much difcomposed and daunted at his first fetting out: he recovered spirit enough, however, to go through his fpeech, which was taken down in writing, and published as it was delivered; though the copy of it now extant, is supposed to have been retouched, and corrected by him afterwards, for a present to Milo, who was condemned, and went into exile zt Marseilles, a few days after his condemnation.

THOUGH I am apprehenfive, my lords, it may feem a reflection on a perfon's character to discover any figns of fear, when he is entering on the defence of fo brave a man, and particularly unbecoming in me, that when T. Annius Milo himself is more concerned for the fafety of the state than his own, I should not be able to maintain an equal greatness of mird in pleading his caufe; yet 1 muft own, the unusual manner in which this new kind of trial is conducted, strokes me with a kind of terror, while I am looking around me, in vain, for the ancient usages of the forum, and the forms that have been hitherto observed in our courts of judicature. Your bench is not furrounded with the usual circle, nor is the crowd such as used to throng us. For those guards you fee planted before all the temples, however intended to prevent all violence, yet strike the orator with terror; so that even in the forum and during a trial, though attended with an useful and necessary guard, I cannot help being under some apprehenfions, at the fame time I am sensible they are without foundation. Indeed, if I imagined it was stationed there in oppofition to Milo, I should give way, my lords, to the times; and conclude there was no room for an orator in the midst of fuch an armed force. But the prudence of Pompey, a man of fuch diftinguished wisdom and equity, both chears and relieves me; whofe juftice will never fufler him to leave a person exposed to the rage of the foldiery,