34.3
After this, they were swept along into passionate speeches and tears, and their friends, amazed at the harshness and intensity of their anger, feared some untoward result; they were, however, forbidden to approach.
34.4
But Marcus Favonius, who had become a devotee of Cato, and was more impetuous and frenzied than reasonable in his pursuit of philosophy, tried to go in to them, and was prevented by their servants.
34.5
It was no easy matter, however, to stop Favonius when he sprang to do anything, for he was always vehement and rash. The fact that he was a Roman senator was of no importance in his eyes, and by the cynical boldness of his speech he often took away its offensiveness, and therefore men put up with his impertinence as a joke.
34.6
And so at this time he forced his way through the bystanders and entered the room, reciting in an affected voice the verses wherein Homer Iliad, i. 259. represents Nestor as saying:— But do ye harken to me, for ye both are younger than I am, and so forth.
34.7
At this Cassius burst out laughing; but Brutus drove Favonius out of the room, calling him a mere dog, and a counterfeit Cynic.A follower of Antisthenes was called a Cynic, or dog-like, probably from the coarse and brutal manners affected by the school. However, at the time, this incident put an end to their quarrel, and they separated at once.
