Caius Lucilius was the earliest of the Roman satirists, born at Suessa Aurunca, b.c. 148; he died at Naples, b.c. 103. He served under Scipio in the Numantine war. He was a very vehement and bold satirist. Cicero alludes here to a saying of his, which he mentions more expressly (De Orat. ii.), that he did not wish the ignorant to read his works because they could not understand them: nor the learned because they would be able to criticise them.
Persium non curo legere: Lælium Decimum volo.
This Persius being a very learned man; in comparison with whom Lælius was an ignoramus.
The Greek line occurs in the Orestes, 207.
Ὡ πότνια λήθη τῶν κακῶν ὡς εἶ γλυκύ.
Virgil has the same idea—
Vos et Scyllæam rabiem, penitusque sonantes
Accêtis scopulos, vos et Cyclopia saxa
Experti; revocate animos, moestumque timorem
Pellite: forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.—Æn. i. 200.
Which Dryden translates—
With me the rocks of Scylla have you tried,
Th' inhuman Cyclops and his den defied:
What greater ills hereafter can you bear?
Resume your courage and dismiss your care;
An hour will come with pleasure to relate
Your sorrows past as benefits of fate.
This seems to refer to the Greek epigram—