and freely; and as he very prudently avoided every forcible exertion of
his voice on account of the weakness of his lungs, so his language was
equally adapted to the delicacy of his constitution. There was nothing in
his style but what was neat, compact, and healthy; and (what may justly be
considered as his greatest excellence) though he was scarcely able, and
therefore never attempted to force the passions of the judges by a strong
and spirited elocution, yet he managed them so artfully, that the gentle
emotions he raised in them, answered exactly the same purpose, and
produced the same effect, as the violent ones which were excited by
Sulpicius. For Sulpicius was really the most striking, and, if I may be
allowed the expression, the most tragical Orator I ever heard:--his voice
was strong and sonorous, and yet sweet, and flowing:--his gesture, and the
sway of his body, was graceful and ornamental, but in such a style as to
appear to have been formed for the Forum, and not for the stage:--and his
language, though rapid and voluble, was neither loose nor exuberant. He
was a professed imitator of Crassus, while Cotta chose Antonius for his
model: but the latter wanted the force of Antonius, and the former the
agreeable humour of Crassus."--"How extremely difficult, then," said
Brutus, "must be the art of speaking, when such consummate Orators as
these were each of them destitute of one of its principal beauties!"--"We
may likewise observe," said I, "in the present instance, that two Orators
may have the highest degree of merit, who are totally unlike each other:
for none could be more so than Cotta and Sulpicius, and yet both of them
were far superior to any of their cotemporaries. It is therefore the
business of every intelligent matter to take notice what is the natural
bent of his pupil's capacity; and, taking that for his guide, to imitate
the conduct of Socrates with his two scholars Theopompus and Ephorus, who,
after remarking the lively genius of the former, and the mild and timid
bashfulness of the latter, is reported to have said that he applied a spur
to the one, and a curb to the other. The Orations now extant, which bear
the name of Sulpicius, are supposed to have been written after his decease
by my cotemporary P. Canutius, a man indeed of inferior rank, but who, in
my mind, had a great command of language. But we have not a single speech
of Sulpicius that was really his own: for I have often heard him say, that
he neither had, nor ever could commit any thing of the kind to writing.
And as to Cotta's speech in defence of himself, called a vindication of
the _Varian Law_, it was composed, at his own request, by L. Aelius. This
Aelius was a man of merit, and a very worthy Roman knight, who was
thoroughly versed in the Greek and Roman literature. He had likewise a
critical knowledge of the antiquities of his country, both as to the date
and particulars of every new improvement, and every memorable transaction,
and was perfectly well read in the ancient writers;--a branch of learning
in which he was succeeded by our friend Varro, a man of genius, and of the
most extensive erudition, who afterwards enlarged the plan by many
valuable collections of his own, and gave a much fuller and more elegant
system of it to the Public. For Aelius himself chose to assume the
character of a Stoic, and neither aimed to be, nor ever was an Orator: but
he composed several Orations for other people to pronounce; as for Q.
Metellus, F. Q. Caepio, and Q. Pompeius Rufus; though the latter composed
those speeches himself which he spoke in his own defence, but not without
the assistance of Aelius. For I myself was present at the writing of them,
in the younger part of my life, when I used to attend Aelius for the
benefit of his instructions. But I am surprised, that Cotta, who was
really an excellent Orator, and a man of good learning, should be willing
that the trifling Speeches of Aelius mould be published to the world as
_his_.
"To the two above-mentioned, no third person of the same age was esteemed
an equal: Pomponius, however, was a Speaker much to my taste; or, at
least, I have very little fault to find with him. But there was no
employment for any in capital causes, excepting for those I have already
mentioned; because Antonius, who was always courted on these occasions,
was very ready to give his service; and Crassus, though not so compliable,
generally consented, on any pressing sollicitation, to give _his_. Those
who had not interest enough to engage either of these, commonly applied to
Philip, or Caesar; but when Cotta and Sulpicius were at liberty, they
generally had the preference: so that all the causes in which any honour
was to be acquired, were pleaded by these six Orators. We may add, that
trials were not so frequent then as they are at present; neither did
people employ, as they do now, several pleaders on the same side of the
question,--a practice which is attended with many disadvantages. For
hereby we are often obliged to speak in reply to those whom we had not an
opportunity of hearing; in which case, what has been alledged on the
opposite side, is often represented to us either falsely or imperfectly;
and besides, it is a very material circumstance, that I myself should be
present to see with what countenance my antagonist supports his
allegations, and, still more so, to observe the effect of every part of
his discourse upon the audience. And as every defence should be conducted
upon one uniform plan, nothing can be more improperly contrived, than to
re-commence it by assigning the peroration, or pathetical part of it, to a
second advocate. For every cause can have but one natural introduction and
conclusion; and all the other parts of it, like the members of an animal
body, will best retain their proper strength and beauty, when they are
regularly disposed and connected. We may add, that as it is very difficult
in a single Oration of any length, to avoid saying something which does
not comport with the rest of it so well as it ought to do, how much more
difficult must it be to contrive that nothing shall be said, which does
not tally exactly with the speech of another person who has spoken before
you? But as it certainly requires more labour to plead a whole cause, than
only a part of it, and as many advantageous connections are formed by
assisting in a suit in which several persons are interested, the custom,
however preposterous in itself, has been readily adopted.
"There were some, however, who esteemed Curio the third best Orator of the
age; perhaps, because his language was brilliant and pompous, and because
he had a habit (for which I suppose he was indebted to his domestic
education) of expressing himself with tolerable correctness: for he was a
man of very little learning. But it is a circumstance of great importance,
what sort of people we are used to converse with at home, especially in
the more early part of life; and what sort of language we have been
accustomed to hear from our tutors and parents, not excepting the mother.
We have all read the Letters of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi; and
are satisfied, that her sons were not so much nurtured in their mother's
lap, as in the elegance and purity of her language. I have often too
enjoyed the agreeable conversation of Laelia, the daughter of Caius, and
observed in her a strong tincture of her father's elegance. I have
likewise conversed with his two daughters, the Muciae, and his
granddaughters, the two Liciniae, with one of whom (the wife of Scipio)
you, my Brutus, I believe, have sometimes been in company."--"I have,"
replied he, "and was much pleased with her conversation; and the more so,
because she was the daughter of Crassus."--"And what think you," said I,
"of Crassus, the son of that Licinia, who was adopted by Crassus in his
will?"--"He is said," replied he, "to have been a man of great genius: and
the Scipio you have mentioned, who was my colleague, likewise appears to
me to have been a good Speaker, and an elegant companion."--"Your opinion,
my Brutus," said I, "is very just. For this family, if I may be allowed
the expression, seems to have been the offspring of Wisdom. As to their
two grandfathers, Scipio and Crassus, we have taken notice of them
already: as we also have of their great grandfathers, Q. Metellus, who had
four sons,--P. Scipio, who, when a private citizen, freed the Republic
from the arbitrary influence of T. Gracchus,--and Q. Scaevola, the augur,
who was the ablest and most affable Civilian of his time. And lastly, how
illustrious are the names of their next immediate progenitors, P. Scipio,
who was twice Consul, and was called the Darling of the People,--and C.
Laelius, who was esteemed the wisest of men?"--"A generous stock indeed!"
cries Brutus, "into which the wisdom of many has been successively
ingrafted, like a number of scions on the same tree!"--"I have likewise a
suspicion," replied I, "(if we may compare small things with great) that
Curio's family, though he himself was left an orphan, was indebted to his
father's instruction, and good example, for the habitual purity of their
language: and so much the more, because, of all those who were held in any
estimation for their Eloquence, I never knew one who was so totally rude
and unskilled in every branch of liberal science. He had not read a single
poet, or studied a single orator; and he knew little or nothing either of
Public, Civil, or Common law. We might say almost the same, indeed, of
several others, and some of them very able Orators, who (we know) were but
little acquainted with these useful parts of knowledge; as, for instance,
of Sulpicius and Antonius. But this deficiency was supplied in them by an
elaborate knowledge of the art of Speaking; and there was not one of them
who was totally unqualified in any of the five [Footnote: Invention,
Disposition, Elocution, Memory, and Pronunciation.] principal parts of
which it is composed; for whenever this is the case, (and it matters not
in which of those parts it happens) it intirely incapacitates a man to
shine as an Orator. Some, however, excelled in one part, and some in
another. Thus Antonius could readily invent such arguments as were most in
point, and afterwards digest and methodize them to the best advantage; and
he could likewise retain the plan he had formed with great exactness: but
his chief merit was the goodness of his delivery, in which he was justly
allowed to excel. In some of these qualifications he was upon an equal
footing with Crassus, and in others he was superior: but then the language
of Crassus was indisputably preferable to _his_. In the same manner, it
cannot be said that either Sulpicius or Cotta, or any other Speaker of
repute, was absolutely deficient in any one of the five parts of Oratory.
But we may justly infer from the example of Curio, that nothing will more
recommend an Orator, than a brilliant and ready flow of expression; for he
was remarkably dull in the invention, and very loose and unconnected in
the disposition of his arguments. The two remaining parts are
Pronunciation and Memory; in each of which he was so poorly qualified, as
to excite the laughter and the ridicule of his hearers. His gesture was
really such as C. Julius represented it, in a severe sarcasm, that will
never be forgotten; for as he was swaying and reeling his whole body from
side to side, Julius enquired very merrily, _who it was that was speaking
from a boat_. To the same purpose was the jest of Cn. Sicinius, a very
vulgar sort of man, but exceedingly humourous, which was the only
qualification he had to recommend him as an Orator. When this man, as
Tribune of the people, had summoned Curio and Octavius, who were then
Consuls, into the Forum, and Curio had delivered a tedious harangue, while
Octavius sat silently by him, wrapt up in flannels, and besmeared with
ointments, to ease the pain of the gout;"--"_Octavius," said he, "you are
infinitely obliged to your colleague; for if he had not tossed and flung
himself about to-day, in the manner he did, you would have certainly have
been devoured by the flies._"--"As to his memory, it was so extremely
treacherous, that after he had divided his subject into three general
heads, he would sometimes, in the course of speaking, either add a fourth,
or omit the third. In a capital trial, in which I had pleaded for Titinia,
the daughter of Cotta, when he attempted to reply to me in defence of
Serv. Naevius, he suddenly forgot every thing he had intended to say, and
attributed it to the pretended witchcraft, and magic artifices of Titinia.
These were undoubted proofs of the weakness of his memory. But, what is
still more inexcusable, he sometimes forgot, even in his written
treatises, what he had mentioned but a little before. Thus, in a book of
his, in which he introduces himself as entering into conversation with our
friend Pansa, and his son Curio, when he was walking home from the Senate-
house; the Senate is supposed to have been summoned by Caesar in his first
Consulship; and the whole conversation arises from the son's enquiry what
the House had resolved upon. Curio launches out into a long invective
against the conduct of Caesar, and, as is generally the custom in
dialogues, the parties are engaged in a close dispute on the subject: but
very unhappily, though the conversation commences at the breaking up of
the Senate which Caesar held when he was first Consul, the author censures
those very actions of the same Caesar, which did not happen till the next,
and several other succeeding years of his government in Gaul."--"Is it
possible then," said Brutus, with an air of surprize, "that any man, (and
especially in a written performance) could be so forgetful as not to
discover, upon a subsequent perusal of his own work, what an egregious
blunder he had committed?"--"Very true," said I; "for if he wrote with a
design to discredit the measures which he represents in such an odious
light, nothing could be more stupid than not to commence his dialogue at a
period which was subsequent to those measures. But he so entirely forgets
himself, as to tell us, that he did not choose to attend a Senate which
was held in one of Caesar's future consulships, in the very same dialogue
in which he introduces himself as returning home from a Senate which was
held in his first consulship. It cannot, therefore, be wondered at, that
he who was so remarkably defective in a faculty which is the steward of
our other intellectual powers, as to forget, even in a written treatise, a
material circumstance which he had mentioned but a little before, should
find his memory fail him, as it generally did, in a sudden and
unpremeditated harangue. It accordingly happened, though he had many
connections, and was fond of speaking in public, that few causes were
intrusted to his management. But, among his cotemporaries, he was esteemed
next in merit to the first Orators of the age; and that merely, as I said
before, for his good choice of words, and his uncommon readiness, and
great fluency of expression. His Orations, therefore, may deserve a
cursory perusal. It is true, indeed, they are much too languid and
spiritless; but they may yet be of service to enlarge and improve an
accomplishment, of which he certainly had a moderate share; and which has
so much force and efficacy, that it gave Curio the appearance and
reputation of an Orator, without the assistance of any other good quality.
"But to return to our subject,--C. Carbo, of the same age, was likewise
reckoned an Orator of the second class: he was the son, indeed, of the
truly eloquent man before-mentioned, but was far from being an acute
Speaker himself: he was, however, esteemed an Orator. His language was
tolerably nervous, he spoke with ease,--and there was an air of authority
in his address that was perfectly natural. But Q. Varius was a man of
quicker invention, and, at the same time, had an equal freedom of
expression: besides which, he had a bold and spirited delivery, and a vein
of elocution which was neither poor, nor coarse and vulgar;--in short, you
need not hesitate to pronounce him an _Orator_. Cn. Pomponius was a
vehement, a rousing, and a fierce and eager Speaker, and more inclined to
act the part of a prosecutor, than of an advocate. But far inferior to
these was L. Fufius; though his application was, in some measure, rewarded
by the success of his prosecution against M. Aquilius. For as to M.
Drusus, your great uncle, who spoke like an Orator only upon matters of
government;--L. Lucullus, who was indeed an artful Speaker, and your
father, my Brutus, who was well acquainted with the Common and Civil Law;
--M. Lucullus, and M. Octavius, the son of Cnaeus, who was a man of so
much authority and address, as to procure the repeal of Sempronius's
corn-act, by the suffrages of a full assembly of the people;--Cn.
Octavius, the son of Marcus,--and M. Cato, the father, and Q. Catulus,
the son;--we must excuse these (if I may so express myself) from the
fatigues and dangers of the field,--that is, from the management of
judicial causes, and place them in garison over the general interests
of the Republic, a duty to which they seem to have been sufficiently
adequate. I should have assigned the same post to Q. Caepio, if he
had not been so violently attached to the Equestrian Order, as to set
himself at variance with the Senate. I have also remarked, that Cn.
Carbo, M. Marius, and several others of the same stamp, who would
not have merited the attention of an audience that had any taste for
elegance, were extremely well suited to address a tumultuous crowd.
In the same class, (if I may be allowed to interrupt the series of
my narrative) L. Quintius lately made his appearance: though Palicanus,
it must be owned, was still better adapted to please the ears of the
populace. But, as I have mentioned this inferior kind of Speakers,
I must be so just to L. Apuleius Saturninus, as to observe that, of all
the factious declaimers since the time of the Gracchi, he was generally
esteemed the ablest: and yet he caught the attention of the Public, more
by his appearance, his gesture, and his dress, than by any real fluency of
expression, or even a tolerable share of good sense. But C. Servilius
Glaucia, though the most abandoned wretch that ever existed, was very keen
and artful, and excessively humourous; and notwithstanding the meanness of
his birth, and the depravity of his life, he would have been advanced to
the dignity of a Consul in his Praetorship, if it had been judged lawful
to admit his suit: for the populace were entirely at his devotion, and he
had secured the interest of the Knights, by an act he had procured in
their favour. He was slain in the open Forum, while he was Praetor, on the
same day as the tribune Saturninus, in the Consulship of Marius and
Flaccus; and bore a near resemblance to Hyperbolus, the Athenian, whose
profligacy was so severely stigmatized in the old Attic Comedies. These
were succeeded by Sext. Titius, who was indeed a voluble Speaker, and
possessed a ready comprehension, but he was so loose and effeminate in his
gesture, as to furnish room for the invention of a dance, which was called
the _Titian jigg_: so careful should we be to avoid every oddity in our
manner of speaking, which may afterwards be exposed to ridicule by a
ludicrous imitation.