Plutarch draws a picture of him so vivid that by common consent it is ascribed to the memoirs of some one who knew him.

"In all his dealings with men," says the biographer, "he was always dignified yet always courteous"; that is, while he inspired respect, men felt also that he would do anything in his power for them.

That this was said of him by a Roman, and not invented for him by Plutarch, seems probable because the combination is one peculiarly Roman; so Livy, when he wishes to describe the finest type of Roman character, says that a certain man was "haud minus libertatis alienae quam suae dignitatis memor."[161] This same combination meets us also in the little pictures of the social life of cultivated men which Cicero has left us in some of his dialogues.

There the speakers are usually of the nobility, often distinguished members of senatorial families, as in the _de Oratore_, where the chief _personae_ are Crassus, Antonius, and Scaevola, the conservative triumvirate of the day.

They all seem grave, or but seldom gently jocular, respectful to each other, and perhaps a trifle tedious; they never quarrel, however deeply they may differ, and we may guess that they did not hold their opinions strongly enough to urge them to open rupture.