" ----_is dictus, ollis popularibus olim,
Qui tum vivebant homines, atque aevum agitabant,
Flos delibatus populi_."

"_He was called by his cotemporaries, the choicest Flower of the State_."

"A very elegant compliment! for as the glory of a man is the strength of
his mental capacity, so the brightest ornament of that is Eloquence; in
which, whoever had the happiness to excel, was beautifully styled, by the
Ancients, the _Flower_ of the State; and, as the Poet immediately
subjoins,

"'--_Suadaeque medulla:'

"the very marrow and quintessence of Persuasion_."

"That which the Greeks call [Greek: Peitho], _(i.e. Persuasion)_ and which
it is the chief business of an Orator to effect, is here called _Suada_ by
Ennius; and of this he commends Cethegus as the _quintessence_; so that he
makes the Roman Orator to be himself the very substance of that amiable
Goddess, who is said by Eupolis to have dwelt on the lips of Pericles.
This Cethegus was joint-consul with P. Tuditanus in the second Punic war;
at which time also M. Cato was Quaestor, about one hundred and forty years
before I myself was promoted to the consulship; which circumstance would
have been absolutely lost, if it had not been recorded by Ennius; and the
memory of that illustrious citizen, as has probably been the case of many
others, would have been obliterated by the rust of antiquity. The manner
of speaking which was then in vogue, may easily be collected from the
writings of _Naevius_: for Naevius died, as we learn from the memoirs of