Book 6
12
Quintus Ennius also seems to have spoken not without scorn of the tunic-clad men of the Carthaginians. Ann. 325, Vahlen2.
13
Whom Marcus Cato calls classici or belonging to a class, and whom infra classem or below class.
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NOT all those men who were enrolled in the five classes The five classes into which the Roman citizens were divided by the constitution attributed to Servius Tullius. The division was for military purposes and was made on the basis of a property qualification. were called classici, but only the men of the first class, who were rated at a hundred and twenty-five thousand asses or more. But those of the second class and of all the other classes, who were rated at a smaller sum than that which I just mentioned, were called infra classes. I have briefly noted this, because in connection with the speech of Marcus Cato In Support of the Voconian Law the question is often raised, what is meant by classicus and what by infra classem.
14
Of the three literary styles; and of the three philosophers who were sent as envoys by the Athenians to the senate at Rome.
14
BOTH in verse and in prose there are three approved styles, which the Greeks call xarakth=res and to which they have given the names of a(dro/s, i)sxno/s and me/sos. We also call the one which I put first grand, the second plain, and the third middle.
14
The grand style possesses dignity and richness, the plain, grace and elegance; the middle lies on the border line and partakes of the qualities of both.
