Equidem non negaverim Cassium Severum, quem solum Aper noster nominare ausus est, si iis comparetur qui postea fuerunt, posse oratorem vocari, quamquam in magna parte librorum suorum plus bilis habeat quam sanguinis; primus enim contempto ordine rerum, omissa modestia ac pudore verborum, ipsis etiam quibus utitur armis incompositus et studio feriendi plerumque deiectus, non pugnat, sed rixatur.
This is the origin of the epigram, so shameful and so wrong-headed but yet so common, which says that at Rome orators speak voluptuously and actors dance eloquently. With reference to Cassius Severus, who is the only one our friend Aper ventured to name, I should not care to deny that, if he is compared with those who came after him, he may be called a real orator, though a considerable portion of his compositions contains more of the choleric element than of good red blood. Cassius was the first to treat lightly the arrangement of his material, and to disregard propriety and restraint of utterance. He is unskilful in the use of the weapons of his choice, and so keen is he to hit that he quite frequently loses his balance. So, instead of being a warrior, he is simply a brawler.
final_alignments\Tacitus_Dialogus.json