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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [A6r p11]

Les plus cruels surmontés.

IIII.

A man in classical dress sits in a chariot pulled by lions.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Quand Antoine eut faict decoller
Ciceron, pere d’eloquence:[1]
A son char il fit atteler
Des lions par son arrogance:[2]
Tesmoignant par ceste insolence,
Que comme Lions le servoyent,
Il avoit mis sous sa puissance
Les grands, qui Romme dominoyent.

commentaires.

Quand Marc Antoine eut faict tuer Ciceron par
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [A6v p12] Popilius Lenas, il voulut que son char triomphal fust
tiré par deux lions, pour donner à entendre qu’il
estoit venu à bout des plus puissans & des plus redou-
tés de Romme: superbe & insolence, qui accompa-
gne ordinairement la victoire.

Notes:

1.  Cicero was considered Rome’s greatest orator - his name was held by many to be synonymous with eloquence itself; see Quintilian, Institutio oratoria 10.1.112. Mark Antony had Cicero murdered in 43 BC in revenge for his scathing attacks in the fourteen ‘Philippic’ orations. See Seneca the Elder, Suasoriae 6.17.

2.  Cf. Pliny, Natural History 8.21.55: Antony was the first to yoke lions to a chariot in Rome...by this unnatural sight giving people to understand that noble spirits were at that time bowing to the yoke.

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