On Military Matters

They sometimes call a writer one who yields to the burden or one who is falling asleep. But you will especially marvel at that man Zoilus. Zoilus was a Greek grammarian from the 4th century BCE known for his severe criticism of Homer. He traveled from Macedonia to Alexandria and desired the nickname Homeromastix. original: "Homeromastix," meaning "Scourge of Homer." He took this name when he recited his own writings before King Ptolemy. These writings were composed as attacks against the Iliad and the Odyssey, even though Homer had died a thousand years earlier.

We also know that Virgil, the poet from Mantua, was criticized. The text refers to him as Maro. He was a man highly polished in the knowledge of all disciplines. As Horace said of him, the earth has not produced a more pure soul. original: "Flaccus," referring to the poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus. Yet, the emperor Caligula, a man of no talent, attacked him. So did Marcus Vipranius, Cornificius Evangelus, the painter Cabillo, Herennius Perillo, Faustinus, Octavius Avitus, and many others. They did not label Virgil a mere imitator. Instead, they branded him a "plunderer of the ancients" and a public thief. These critics accused Virgil of stealing lines from earlier poets like Ennius or Homer.

Publius Terentius, the greatest of comic playwrights, suffered these same insults from spiteful men. He even wrote prologues for his plays to defend himself on the stage. His enemies insisted that he translated all his comedies directly from the Greek writers Apollodorus and Menander. They claimed he was helped in his writing by the noblemen Laelius and Scipio. Because of this, they accused him of publishing work that was not his own, but rather the work of others. Some say he was helped by Quintus Sulpicius Gallus, who first produced plays at the consular games, or by Quintus Fabius Labeo and Marcus Pompilius. Both of these men were consuls and poets whose help Terence and the Roman people often experienced in war, in leisure, and in business.

Consider Marcus Tullius Cicero. Who was more adorned in eloquence or more enlightened in teaching? Who was more successful in explaining ideas or more powerful in persuasion? He stood at the very peak of Roman eloquence. He achieved such fame that, among later generations, his name represents a divine and living eloquence rather than just the name of a man from Arpinum. Arpinum was Cicero's birthplace.

Even Cicero could not escape the bite of detractors or their sharp tongues. The Greeks believed he deserved to be accused of "recovery of property." original: "repetundarum." This is a legal term for extortion, but here it suggests Cicero was being sued for stealing Greek ideas and passing them off as his own. They claimed he put into writing things he had not invented himself. Others charged him with speaking in a disorganized way. They called him "swollen," "redundant," and "wordy." Yet, it was his custom to hide a deep knowledge of things within a brief number of words. Martianus Capella even claimed that Cicero’s sentence endings were faulty and that he confused the rhythm of his prose.

Other famous men were also remarkably hostile toward him. These included Gallus Afinius, Calvus, and Largius Licinius. It is said that Largius Licinius even published a notorious book intended to lash out at Cicero and mark him with infamy.