XXII. MARCUS POMPONIUS MARCELLUS, a very severe critic of the Latin tongue, who sometimes pleaded causes, in a certain address on the plaintiff’s behalf, persisted in charging his adversary with making a solecism, until Cassius Severus appealed to the judges to grant an adjournment until his client should produce another grammarian, as he was not prepared to enter into a controversy respecting a solecism, instead of defending his client’s rights.
On another occasion, when he had found fault with some expression in a speech made by Tiberius, Atteius Capito 896 affirmed, “that if it was not Latin, at least it would be so in time to come;” “Capito is wrong,” cried Marcellus; “it is certainly in your power, Caesar, to confer the freedom of the city on whom you please, but you cannot make words for us.”
Asinius Gallus 897 tells us that he was formerly a pugilist, in the following epigram.
> Qui caput ad laevam deicit, glossemata nobis
> Praecipit; os nullum, vel potius pugilis.
Who ducked his head, to shun another’s fist,
Though he expound old saws,—yet, well I wist,
With pummelled nose and face, he’s but a pugilist.XXIII. REMMIUS PALAEMON 898, of Vicentia 899, the offspring of a bond-woman, acquired the rudiments of learning, first as the companion of a weaver’s, and then of his master’s, son, at school. Being afterwards made free, he taught at Rome, where he stood highest in the rank of the grammarians; but he was so infamous for every sort of vice, that Tiberius and his successor Claudius publicly denounced him as an improper person to have the education of boys and young men entrusted to him. Still, his powers of narrative and agreeable style of speaking made him very popular; besides which, he had the gift of making extempore verses.