Cicero, Pro Archia (20):
There is no one so averse to the Muses that he would not readily submit to having an eternal monument of his own labors made in verse. They say that Themistocles, the chief man in Athens, when he was asked what entertainment or whose voice he would most gladly listen to, responded that he would most gladly hear the voice of the one by whom his own glory was best celebrated. And so, in the same way, Marius esteemed Lucius Plotius, by whose talent he thought that his own accomplishments could be best celebrated.
Neque enim quisquam est tam aversus a Musis, qui non mandari versibus aeternum suorum laborum facile praeconium patiatur. Themistoclem illum, summum Athenis virum, dixisse aiunt, cum ex eo quaereretur, quod acroama aut cuius vocem libentissime audiret: “Eius, a quo sua virtus optime praedicaretur.” Itaque ille Marius item eximie L. Plotium dilexit, cuius ingenio putabat ea quae gesserat posse celebrari.
