Professors II. — Latinus Alcimus Alethius, the Rhetorician

Nor shall Posterity arraign me on the charge of unduteous silence touching you, Alcimus, and say I was too unworthy and unheedful to be entrusted with the memory of one whom our later age matches alone with the men of olden time. In legal eloquence you were supreme, you were the Muses' pride, and our one model in those letters which learned Greece fostered at Athens, or which Rome fosters throughout the Latin world. Shall I speak of your character and of the rule of life maintained to your life's end? Or of the brilliance of your renown, and the devotion to learning which made you wholly shun ambition? No man was more dignified than you, yet none was more agreeable or more generous to the needy in undertaking the defence if legal aid was needed, or in zealously teaching some pupil in the schools. Those upon whom you bestowed glorious renown will live in the memory of all succeeding ages, and your works will bestow upon Julian greater renown than will the sceptre which he held so short a time. Your histories will throw more lustre on Sallust's name than he ever gained through his consulship. So in your virtues, graces, and eloquence you have set a pattern to your sons.

If my pen, seeking to please, only offends, yet pardon me: 'tis the love I bear you is guilty, if, though I cannot voice aught worthy, I seek to pay my homage, harmfully zealous. Calm be your rest, and with renown outweigh the frail body's loss.