Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/304

 A N T O N I U S. hb C;dC a rar ' art ^ ^ oc l uence - He defended, amongft many others, ? ' 47 'Marcus Aquilius; and moved the judges in fo fenfible a "o- manner, by the tears he Ihed and the fears he fhewed upon _"J'the breaA of his client, that he carried his caufe. Cicero i Orat. has given us the character of his eloquence, and of his action, jenuo. He never would publifh any of his pleadings, that he miht rap. 1. i r i i r r Vai.Max. not > as ne ' aid ? " e P rovet ' to < a y ''" one caufe, what might lib. vii. be contrary to what he Ihould advance in another. He ca P- 3- affected to be a man of no learning [A]. His modefty and many other qualifications rendered him no lefs dear to many perfons of diltin<tion, than his eloquence made him univer- fally admired. He was unfortunately killed, during the difturbances raifed at Rome by Marius and Cinna; and his head wasexpofed before the roitrum, a place which ha had adorned with his triumphal fpoils. This happened in the year of Rome 667. Helefrtwo fons, Marcus and Cains; ofwhomBayle fays, Dici.uiAit. t h at lne y " were more worthy to be the father and uncle of " Aritonius the Triumvir, than fons of the great man who Plutarch, jnt gave them life." The elder Marcus, furnamed Creticus, toni " never railed himfelf beyond the prstorfhip, but executed that office with a prodigious extent of authority ; for he had the fame commiiiion which Pompey had afterwards, for importing corn and exterminating the pirates, which gave him the whole command of the feas. He commuted great extortions in the provinces, particularly in Sicily. He in- vaded Crete without any declaration of war, on purpofe to en/lave it ; and with fuch an affurance of victory, that he Lib. iii.c. 7. carried with him, fays Floras more fetters, than arms. But he met with the fate that lie deferved : for the Cretans totally routed him in a naval engagement, and returned triumphant into their ports, with the bodies of their enemies hanging on their mafts. He died loon after this difgrace, infamous in his character, " nor in any refpeil a better man," fd)s Afconius, " than his fon." [A] Mr. B;y'e imagines he dM this he thought noth'ng more proper to pre- not fo much out of modefty as policy j f'uce a good tried, than to make them th-t finding hirnlelr eflabliftml in the btlirve that he pleaded without any reputation cf a ijK'it orator, he thought preparation, and to conceal f:om them the world voulil .j'hnue him rrorr, if all the artifice of rhetoric. But yet he rney fuppoieri this eloquence owing en- was learned, and not una>quainted with lirely to the ftrength of his natural the deft Grecian authors, of which genius, rather than the fruit of a lung there are proofs in fcveral paifdges of application to the iiuciy ft Greek au- Cictio. r s. 'i'iiat with regard to the judges, 7 His