However, he first made a voyage to Rhodus
in order to have the instruction of Apollonius the son of Molon,[444]
of whom Cicero also was a hearer. This Apollonius was a distinguished
rhetorician, and had the reputation of being a man of a good
disposition. Caesar is said to have had a great talent for the
composition of discourses on political matters, and to have cultivated
it most diligently, so as to obtain beyond dispute the second rank;
his ambition to be first in power and arms, made him from want of
leisure give up the first rank, to which his natural talents invited
him, and consequently his attention to military matters and political
affairs by which he got the supreme power, did not allow him to attain
perfection in oratory. Accordingly at a later period, in his reply to
Cicero about Cato,[445] he deprecates all comparison between the
composition of a soldier and the eloquence of an accomplished orator
who had plenty of leisure to prosecute his studies.
IV. On his return to Rome he impeached[446] Dolabella[447] for
maladministration in his province, and many of the cities of Greece
gave evidence in support of the charge. Dolabella, indeed, was
acquitted; but to make some return to the Greeks for their zeal in his
behalf, Caesar assisted them in their prosecution of Publius
Antonius[448] for corruption before Marcus Lucullus, the governor of
Macedonia; and his aid was so effectual that Antonius appealed to the
tribunes, alleging that he had not a fair trial in Greece with the
Greeks for his accusers.
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