Page:The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, A Roman Slave.djvu/15

 left my house a knight, to return to it a mere actor. I have lived too long by one day." Then thinking of the talent of his young rival, and fearing a defeat, he added, to extenuate its possible disgrace, and gain the pity of the spectators - "what do I bring upon the stage to day? I have lost every thing - beauty of form, grace of mien, energy of expression, and the advantage of a good utterance. Like a tomb, I bear on my person only a name." But he soon recovered his self-possession, and in his performance launched against tyranny a torrent of sever invective, the application of which was readily seen. Thus acting the part of a slave, escaping from the hands of his executioner, he fled shouting - "It is all over with us, Romans, liberty is lost!" "He who becomes a terror to multitudes, he added a moment after, has multitudes to dread" - while his gaze was continuously fixed on the impassible dictator.

The performance ended, Cæsar invited the audacious actor to take a seat among the spectators of his own rank. Syrus, whose turn to perform had now come, then approaching Laberius, said with a modest air, "be so good as to receive with kindness as a spectator, him against whom you have contended as an actor." Laberius sought a place among the ranks of the knights, who however crowded together so as not to allow him a seat. Cicero, who was somewhat given to raillery, shouted from a distance, directing his irony at once against the actor and the new batch of senators: "I would cheerfully give you my place, if it were not too much crowded." "I am astonished," pertly replied Laberius, "to hear that from a man who is wont to sit so well on two seats at once;" a witty allusion to the equivocal character of the orator, a friend at the same time of Cæsar and Pompey. He seated himself as he best could, to listen to his rival.

Syrus at length appeared, the crowd shouting their applause, and played the piece he had composed; but we are ignorant even of its title.

Whether from resentment, or a sense of justice, Cæsar awarding to Syrus the prize of the theatrical content, immediately passed him