Lucius Cestius

Smyrna, Greece

Lucius Cestius was a man of great ability, but vain, quarrelsome and sarcastic. Before he left Asia, he was invited to dinner by Cicero's son, then governor of the province. His host, being uncertain as to his identity, asked a slave who Cestius was; and on receiving the answer, " he is the man who said your father was illiterate, " ordered him to be flogged. As an orator in the schools Cestius enjoyed a great reputation, and was worshipped by his youthful pupils, one of whom imitated him so slavishly that he was nicknamed "my monkey" by his teacher. As a public orator, on the other hand, he was a failure. Although a Greek, he always used Latin in his declamations, and, although he was sometimes at a loss for Latin words, he never suffered from lack of ideas. Numerous specimens of his declamations will be found in the works of Seneca the rhetorician.

Lucius Cestius