instructions, sometimes of
Roscius, the comedian, and sometimes of Aesop, the tragedian. They
tell of this Aesop, that while representing in the theatre Atreus
deliberating the revenge of Thyestes, he was so transported beyond
himself in the heat of action, that he struck with his sceptre one of
the servants, who was running across the stage, so violently, that he
laid him dead upon the place. And such afterwards was Cicero's delivery,
that it did not a little contribute to render his eloquence persuasive.
He used to ridicule loud speakers, saying that they shouted because they
could not speak, like lame men who get on horseback because they cannot
walk. And his readiness and address in wit and sarcasm were thought to
suit a pleader well.

He was appointed quaestor in a great scarcity of corn, and had Sicily
for his province, where, at first, he displeased many, by compelling
them to send in their provisions to Rome, yet after they had had
experience of his care, justice, and clemency, they honored him more
than ever they did any of their governors before. It happened, also,
that some young Romans of good and noble families, charged with neglect
of discipline and misconduct in military service, were brought before
the praetor in Sicily. Cicero undertook their defence, which he
conducted admirably, and got them acquitted. So returning to Rome with
a great opinion of himself for these things, a ludicrous incident befell
him, as he tells us himself. Meeting an eminent citizen in Campania,
whom he accounted his friend, he asked him what the Romans said and
thought of his actions, as if the whole city had been filled with the
glory of what he had done. His friend asked him in reply, "Where is it
you have been, Cicero?" Utterly mortified and cast down, he perceived
that the report of his actions had sunk into the city of Rome as into an
immense ocean, without any visible effect or result in reputation.

On beginning to apply himself more resolutely to public business,
he remarked it as unreasonable that artificers, using vessels and
instruments inanimate, should know the name, place, and use of every
one of them, and yet the statesman, whose instruments for carrying
out public measures are men, should be negligent and careless in the
knowledge of persons. And so he not only acquainted himself with the
names, but also knew the very place where every one of the more eminent
citizens dwelt, what lands he possessed, his friends