Hortensius.

thing to his eloquence, something might have been retrenched from it.

All the speeches of Cicero which have reached us, being fifty-nine in number, were carefully revised and corrected by him before they were published. Of the seven orations against Verres, the first two only, called the "Divination" and "the First Action," were spoken in court; the other five were published as they were prepared and intended to be spoken if Verres had not abandoned his defence. Like many of his other speeches, Cicero's defence for Milo was much altered and improved; and when a copy of it was sent to Milo in his place of exile, he is said to have exclaimed, "O Cicero, if you had spoken thus, I never should have eaten such good fish at Marseilles ! "1

Among the contemporaries of Cicero, though eight years his senior, was Hortensius, who exercised for a considerable time an undisputed sway in the courts of justice. He was much engaged in defending men of the aristocratical party when accused of malversation and extortion in the provinces, or of bribery and corruption in canvassing for public honours. In his work called 'Brutus,' Cicero gives such a graphic account of Hortensius that we cannot resist quoting it. After describing Cotta's way of speaking as calm and easy, Cicero says: "The language of Hortensius was splendid, warm, and animated, and far more lively and pathetic both in his style and action. He had such an excellent memory, that what he composed in private he was able to repeat without notes in the very same words he made use of at first. He employed this natural advantage with so much readiness, that he not only recalled whatever he had written or premeditated himself, but remembered everything that had been said by his opponents without any notes. He was inflamed with such a passionate fondness for the profession, that I never saw any one who took more pains to improve himself; for he would not suffer a day to elapse without either speaking in the forum or composing something at home, and very often he did both on the same day. He had, besides, a turn of ex

1 Dio. Cass. Hist. Rom., xl. 54.

pression which was far from being lax and unelevated, and possessed, too, other accomplishments in which no one could equal him; an uncommon clearness and accuracy in stating the points he was to speak to; and a neat and easy manner of collecting the substance of what had been said by his antagonist and by himself. He had likewise an elegant choice of words, an agreeable flow in his periods, a copious elocution, with a sweet and sonorous voice, which he was partly indebted for to a fine natural capacity, and partly acquired by the most laborious rhetorical exercises. In short, he had a most retentive view of his subject, and always divided and parcelled it out with the greatest exactness; and he very seldom overlooked anything which the case could suggest that was proper either to support his own allegations, or to refute those of his opponents."

Hortensius had no rival in the forum till he encountered Cicero. Having first run through the career of public honours and amassed a large fortune, Hortensius remitted his intense application, and began to enjoy a life of ease and affluence; while Cicero, redoubling his exertions, obtained at last, by general consent, the palm of eloquence. The orations of Hortensius, though published, have not reached us, and some other works written by him have also perished. His eloquence appears to have been of the florid or "Asiatic" style, and was probably fitter for hearing than for reading. With a soft and musical voice, his action was graceful and elaborate. Ancient writers have recorded the pains he bestowed in arranging the folds of his toga; and Roscius, the actor, is said to have followed him into the forum to take a lesson in his own art. Hortensius possessed immense wealth. He had several villas, splendidly furnished, a gallery of valuable paintings, and a large stock of wines; he had also parks with fish-ponds, and all sorts of animals. He was renowned for his sumptuous entertainments, and, it is said, was the first person at Rome who brought peacocks to table. He died at the age of sixtyfour, in the year of Rome 703, some months before the passage of the Rubicon.

According to Quintilian, Calvus was preferred by some to

Pollio.

Calvus and all the orators of his time. His manner was grave and solid; his style chaste, and often animated. To be thought a man of Attic eloquence was the height of his ambition. His chief fault was, that in labouring to refine his language he was too attentive to little niceties. Had he lived to correct this error, and to give more scope to his eloquence, he would have reached the summit of his art; but he was cut off by a premature death. Asinius Pollio was an accomplished pleader in extensive practice. Of all the eminent advocates he was considered the most happily endowed with the power of speaking on a sudden question with unpremeditated eloquence. As to Brutus, Quintilian says he was fitter for philosophical speculations than for the career of eloquence.

At this brilliant period the members of the Roman bar embraced with ardour all branches of knowledge; their literary exertions were remarkable; and many of them left behind them esteemed works on a great variety of subjects. When we consider the career of Cicero, who prepared such elaborate pleadings, and published them with so much care after they were delivered-who took so large a part in public business during the most stormy period of the republic-who was successively quæstor, edile, prætor, consul, proconsul, and general of an army-and reflect on his numerous works in almost every department of literature and philosophy, we are astonished at his power and versatility, and can hardly conceive how one man was capable of such vast labours. Varro, who also belonged to the bar, earned for himself the title of "the most learned of the Romans;" and St Augustin declares that the life of man is hardly sufficient to enable one to read all he has written. Cato the ancient, Lelius, Crassus, the Antonies, Curio, Philippus, Hortensius, Catulus, Asinius Pollio, Messala Corvinus, and most of the celebrated pleaders of the empire, composed histories or other treatises evincing literary taste and varied erudition; to say nothing of Quintilian, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny, who were all advocates.1 After the age of Cicero, eloquence declined, and a declamatory, redundant, and affected style of speaking was intro1 Grellet-Dumazeau, pp. 197, 198.

eloquence

Cicero.

duced. It had become usual to complete the education of Decline of young men destined for the bar in some of the towns of Asia, after where professors of rhetoric abounded; there a new kind of speaking was taught, called the Asiatic style. This was a compound of Greek subtlety and Oriental pomp, very seductive in appearance, but founded on false taste; it was not simple or natural, but diffuse and ostentatious, and affected to dazzle by strokes of wit, far-fetched metaphors, and superfluous ornament. To Hortensius is ascribed the blame of having first introduced this vicious style at the bar. He had many admirers, who, without his oratorical talents, imitated his faults, and the Asiatic school came by degrees into fashion in the courts of justice.

The eloquence of the bar, already much impaired under Augustus, declined still farther under his successors. From Tiberius to Trajan the advocates who appear most prominently on the scene are those who attained a bad eminence by making a traffic of their talents in conducting criminal prosecutions to satisfy the vengeance of some of the worst emperors. But even during that period a few names occur which recall the best days of the old Roman bar.

Afer.

Domitius Afer, who was born under Augustus, and died at Domitius an advanced age in the reign of Nero, was the most celebrated advocate of his time. He spoke slowly, and with gravity; his arrangement was clear and logical; and his style was concise, earnest, and energetic, with nothing idle or redundant about it; but he could enliven his discourse with touches of irony and humour, and was always heard with pleasure. One day Julius Gallicus was pleading before the Emperor Claudius, who held his court near the banks of the Tiber. The advocate, having irritated the prince, was by his orders thrown into the river. Some days afterwards a client of Gallicus brought his case to Afer, requesting him to plead it before the emperor: "Who told you," said Afer, "that I was a better swimmer than Gallicus?"1

The great blot on the fame of Afer was, that he lent himself to the vengeance of Tiberius. But in those days no

1 Dio. Cass., lx. p. 790.

Pliny the younger.

man's head was safe on his shoulders, and Domitius may have acted on compulsion. A declared enemy to all charlatans, he encouraged a manly style of eloquence; and the bar, raised by his example from a long lethargy, produced some eminent men, who appeared as his adversaries, or acted along with him in all causes of importance. Crispus Passienus, Decimus Lelius, and Julius Africanus, might be seen by his side, all of them men of mark, and the last almost worthy to walk as his equal.

Pliny the younger was the last of the Roman bar who tried to restore to it a portion of its ancient glory. He was the pupil of Quintilian. Not content with the eloquence of his own times, he aspired to follow the best examples of a former age. In his nineteenth year he began to speak in the forum, and he was frequently employed as an advocate before the court of the Centumvirs, as well as before the Roman senate. He soon acquired a high position at the bar. His pleading for Accia Variola, a noble lady disinherited by her father, was regarded as his masterpiece.1

Pliny and Tacitus the historian were most intimate friends. They were both appointed to conduct the prosecution of Marcus Priscus, proconsul of Africa, before the senate. The impeachment was opened by Pliny; and, after an able defence by Salvius Liberalis, we are told, "Tacitus replied to him with great eloquence, and a certain dignity which distinguishes all his speeches."2 Such was the debasement of the bar at this period, that Pliny declares he was ashamed of the corrupt effeminate style that disgraced the court of the Centumvirs, and he thought of withdrawing from it altogether. Pliny wrote a history of his own times, and numerous pleadings, which have perished; but his letters, and his panegyric on the Emperor Trajan, have reached us.

If Pliny under Nerva and Trajan was a model of good taste, his example was not followed by his brethren of an inferior order, who are justly reproached for indulging in foolish quotations and irrelevant digressions. To this habit Martial alludes in his well-known epigram: " Advocate1 Pliny, Ep. vi. 33. 3 Ibid. Ep. ii. 14.

1

2 Ibid. Ep. ii. 11.