; in which our
ancestors have been most eminent in valour, and still more so in
discipline? As to those things which are attained not by study, but
nature, neither Greece, nor any nation, is comparable to us: for what
people has displayed such gravity, such steadiness, such greatness of
soul, probity, faith--such distinguished virtue of every kind, as to be
equal to our ancestors. In learning, indeed, and all kinds of literature,
Greece did excel us, and it was easy to do so where there was no
competition; for while amongst the Greeks the poets were the most ancient
species of learned men,--since Homer and Hesiod lived before the foundation
of Rome, and Archilochus(50) was a contemporary of Romulus,--we received
poetry much later. For it was about five hundred and ten years after the
building of Rome before Livius(51) published a play in the consulship of
C. Claudius, the son of Caecus, and M. Tuditanus, a year before the birth
of Ennius, who was older than Plautus and Naevius.

II. It was, therefore, late before poets were either known or received
amongst us; though we find in Cato de Originibus that the guests used, at
their entertainments, to sing the praises of famous men to the sound of
the flute; but a speech of Cato's shows this kind of poetry to have been
in no great esteem, as he censures Marcus Nobilior, for carrying poets
with him into his province: for that consul, as we know, carried Ennius
with him into AEtolia. Therefore the less esteem poets were in, the less
were those studies pursued: though even then those who did display the
greatest abilities that way, were not very inferior to the Greeks. Do we
imagine that if it had been considered commendable in Fabius,(52) a man of
the highest rank, to paint, we should not have had many Polycleti and
Parrbasii. Honour nourishes art, and glory is the spur with all to
studies; while those studies are always neglected in every nation, which
are looked upon disparagingly. The Greeks held skill in vocal and
instrumental music as a very important accomplishment, and therefore it is
recorded of Epaminondas, who, in my opinion, was the greatest man amongst
the Greeks, that he played excellently on the flute; and Themistocles some
years before was deemed ignorant because at an entertainment he declined
the lyre when it was offered to him. For this reason musicians flourished
in Greece; music was a general study; and whoever was unacquainted with
it, was not considered as