——­Nec tu divinam AEneida tenta,
     Sed longe sequere, et vestigia semper adora. 
                    THEBAIDOS lib. xii. ver. 816.

[f] Aufidius Bassus and Servilius Nonianus were writers of history.  Bassus, according to Quintilian, deserved great commendation, particularly in his History of the German war.  In some of his other works he fell short of himself.  Servilius Nonianus was known to Quintilian, and, in that critic’s judgement, was an author of considerable merit, sententious in his manner, but more diffuse than becomes the historic character.  See Quintilian, lib. x. cap. 1.  The death of SERVILIUS, an eminent orator and historian, is mentioned by Tacitus in the Annals, b. xiv. s. 19; but the additional name of NONIANUS is omitted.  The passage, however, is supposed to relate to the person commended by Quintilian.  He died in the reign of Nero, A.U.C. 812; of the Christian aera 59.

[g] Varro was universally allowed to be the most learned of the Romans.  He wrote on several subjects with profound erudition.  Quintilian says, he was completely master of the Latin language, and thoroughly conversant in the antiquities of Greece and Rome.  His works will enlarge our sphere of knowledge, but can add nothing to eloquence. Peritissimus linguae Latinae, et omnis antiquitatis, et rerum Graecarum, nostrarumque; plus tamen scientiae collaturus, quam eloquentiae. Lib. x. cap. 1.

Sisenna, we are told by Cicero, was a man of learning, well skilled in the Roman language, acquainted with the laws and constitution of his country, and possessed of no small share of wit; but eloquence was not his element, and his practice in the forum was inconsiderable.  See De Claris Oratoribus, s. 228.  In a subsequent part of the same work, Cicero says, that Sisenna was of opinion, that to use uncommon words was the perfection of style.  To prove this he relates a pleasant anecdote.  One Caius Rufus carried on a prosecution.  Sisenna appeared for the defendant; and, to express his contempt of his adversary, said that many parts of the charge deserved to be spit upon.  For this purpose he coined so strange a word, that the prosecutor implored the protection of the judges.  I do not, said he, understand Sisenna; I am circumvented; I fear that some snare is laid for me.  What does he mean by sputatilica? I know that sputa is spittle:  but what is tilica? The court laughed at the oddity of a word so strangely compounded. Rufio accusante Chritilium, Sisenna defendens dixit quaedam ejus SPUTATILICA esse crimina.  Tum Caius Rufius, Circumvenior, inquit, judices, nisi subvenitis.  Sisenna quid dicat nescio; metuo insidias.  SPUTATILICA! quid est hoc? Sputa quid sit, scio; tilica nescio.  Maximi risus, De Claris Oratoribus, s. 260.  Whether this was the same Sisenna, who is said in the former quotation to have been a correct speaker, does not appear with any degree of certainty.