Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, On the Nature of the Gods, and On the Commonwealth

in discipline? As to those things which are attained not by study, but by nature, neither Greece, nor any nation, is comparable to us. For what people has displayed such gravity, such steadiness, such greatness of soul, integrity, and 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 among the Greeks the poets were the most ancient species of learned men—since Homer and Hesiod lived before the foundation of Rome, and Archilochus A Greek poet noted for his satire. was a contemporary of Romulus—we received poetry much later. It was about five hundred and ten years after the building of Rome before Livius Livius Andronicus, a Greek slave who translated the Odyssey into Latin. published a play in the consulship of C. Claudius, 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 among us; though we find in Cato's de Originibus that the guests used, at their entertainments, to sing the praises of famous men to the sound of the flute. However, 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...