——­At si dulcedine famae

Contentus recites, Maculonus commodat aedes. 
Scit dare libertos extrema in parte sedentes
Ordinis, et magnas comitum disponere voces. 
Nemo dabit procerum, quanti subsellia constent. 

          
                                                SAT. vii. ver. 39.

Statius, in Juvenal’s time, was a favourite poet.  If he announced a reading, his auditors went in crowds.  He delighted all degrees and ranks of men; but, when the hour of applause was over, the author was obliged to sell a tragedy to Paris, the famous actor, in order to procure a dinner,

Curritur ad vocem jucundam, et carmen amicae? 
Thebaidos, laetam fecit cum Statius urbem? 
Promisitque diem:  tanta dulcedine vulgi
Auditur; sed cum fregit subsellia versu,
Esurit, intactam Paridi nisi vendit Agaven. 

                                                    SAT. vii. ver. 82.

This was the hard lot of poetry, and this the state of public reading, which Aper describes to his friend Maternus.

Section X.

[a] Horace has the same observation: 

——­Mediocribus esse poetis
Non Dii, non homines, non concessere columnae. 
ART OF POETRY, ver. 372.

But God and man, and letter’d post denies,
That poets ever are of middling size. 
FRANCIS’S HORACE.

[b] Notwithstanding all that is said, in this Dialogue, of Saleius Bassus, it does not appear, in the judgement of Quintilian, that he was a poet whose fame could extend itself to the distant provinces.  Perfection in the kind is necessary.  Livy, the historian, was at the head of his profession.  In consequence of his vast reputation, we know from Pliny, the consul, that a native of the city of Cadiz was so struck with the character of that great writer, that he made a journey to Rome, with no other intent than to see that celebrated genius; and having gratified his curiosity, without staying to view the wonders of that magnificent city, returned home perfectly satisfied. Nunquamne legisti Gaditanum quemdam Titi Livii nomine gloriaque commotum, ad visendum eum ab ultimo terrarum orbe venisse; statimque, ut viderat, abiisse? Lib. ii. epist. 3.

[c] In Homer and Virgil, as well as in the dramatic poets of the first order, we frequently have passages of real eloquence, with the difference which Quintilian mentions:  the poet, he says, is a slave to the measure of his verse; and, not being able at all times to make use of the true and proper word, he is obliged to quit the natural and easy way of expression, and avail himself of new modes and turns of phraseology, such as tropes, and metaphors, with the liberty of transposing words, and lengthening or shortening syllables as he sees occasion. Quod alligati ad certam pedum necessitatem non semper propriis uti possint, sed depulsi a recta via, necessario ad quaedam diverticula confugiant; nec mutare quaedam modo verba, sed extendere, corripere, convertere, dividere cogantur. Quint, lib. x. cap. 1.  The speaker in the Dialogue is aware of this distinction, and, subject to it, the various branches of poetry are with him so many different modes of eloquence.