Note 116 — LIFE OF CAIUS MARIUS.

Publius Sulpicius Rufus was tribune B.C. 88 in the first consulship of Sulla. Cicero had heard many of the speeches of Sulpicius. "He was," says Cicero, "of all the orators that ever I heard, the most dignified, and if one may use the expression, the most tragic: his voice was powerful, sweet, and clear; his gesture and every movement graceful; and yet he seemed as if he were trained for the Forum and not for the stage; his language was rapid and flowery, and yet not redundant or diffuse." (Brutus, c. 55.) Yet this great orator was no writer, and Cicero had heard him say that he was not accustomed to write and could not write. The fact of his inability to write is sufficiently explained by the fact that he did not try. Cicero has made Sulpicius one of the speakers in his Book on the Orator, where (iii. 3) he admits that he was a rash man. (See Penny Cyclopædia, "P. Sulpicius Rufus," by the author of this note; and as to his end, see Sulla, c. 10.)