1-dogma | dolab-neat | neede-terri | terro-zeal
Caput
1 1 | 1 You often ask me, Justus
2 10| 10 Nor again do even reputation
3 11| 11 Aper having said this with
4 12| 12 As to the woods and groves
5 13| 13 Look again at the poet’s
6 14| 14 Excited and, I say, full
7 15| 15 Upon this Aper replied,
8 16| 16 The question you have raised,
9 17| 17 But I pass to the Latin
10 18| 18 I have made these preliminary
11 19| 19 While indeed the admirers
12 2 | 2 It was the day after Curiatius
13 20| 20 Who will now tolerate an
14 21| 21 I will frankly admit to
15 22| 22 I come now to Cicero. He
16 23| 23 Phrases like “Fortune’s
17 24| 24 Aper having finished speaking,
18 25| 25 Messala replied, I will
19 26| 26 After all, if I must put
20 27| 27 For my own part I shall
21 28| 28 Messala continued. Far from
22 29| 29 But in our day we entrust
23 3 | 3 So we entered the study
24 30| 30 I say nothing about the
25 31| 31 Such was the conviction
26 32| 32 Let no one reply that it
27 33| 33 For myself, replied Maternus,
28 34| 34 It was accordingly usual
29 35| 35 But in these days we have
30 36| 36 Great eloquence, like fire,
31 37| 37 Perhaps you have had in
32 38| 38 I pass now to the forms
33 39| 39 Perhaps what I am going
34 4 | 4 This severity of yours,
35 40| 40 Again, what stimulus to
36 41| 41 And so now the forum, which
37 42| 42 Maternus had now finished.
38 5 | 5 For my part, said Secundus,
39 17| Tiro has stated, on the 5th of December, that he was
40 6 | 6 I pass now to the pleasure
41 7 | 7 To speak my own mind, I
42 8 | 8 As for Marcellus Eprius,
43 9 | 9 As for song and verse to
44 3 | contenting you, that you have abandoned the study of the orator
45 9 | an obligation that will abide in anyone’s mind, only idle
46 12| soul withdraws herself to abodes of purity and innocence,
47 12| nor accusations, while it abounded in poets and bards, men
48 | above
49 36| public courts, not in their absence by affidavit, but of being
50 26| heard, is a shame and an absurdity, that our orators speak
51 34| the courts. They had too abundant experience of the popular
52 4 | in fact, never cease from abusing and inveighing against poets,
53 9 | idle applause, meaningless acclamations and a fleeting delight.
54 34| the state. The boy used to accompany and attend him, and be present
55 5 | excellent man, as well as a most accomplished poet? Besides, if poetry
56 30| erudition, a multitude of accomplishments, and a knowledge that was
57 | according
58 12| knew neither orators nor accusations, while it abounded in poets
59 30| Rome, he travelled through Achaia and Asia Minor so as to
60 32| showers his praises in the acknowledgment that the man has been a
61 34| pleader, still they became acquainted with all advocates of their
62 33| infer that the method of acquiring what you mean to produce
63 28| word or to do a disgraceful act. With scrupulous piety and
64 31| conditions, apply his skill, adapt his style, and have every
65 36| guiding hand, he exactly adapted his wisdom to the bewildered
66 17| Augustus over the state; add Tiberius’s three-and-twenty
67 16| transcendent ability have added reflection and study? ~
68 4 | who will compel me by his additional authority to do what I have
69 35| assurance address, and are addressed by, other boys and striplings.
70 37| speech unless he has got an adequate case. Demosthenes, I take
71 38| hours; there was freedom of adjournment, and every one fixed for
72 9 | Our friend Saleius is an admirable poet, or, if the phrase
73 21| it is some one who also admires their poems. For they did
74 25| ours. If again he freely admits that even in the same, much
75 27| as I am concerned, it is admitted. We are inquiring into the
76 31| unseemly in an orator to adopt even certain exclamations
77 20| taste of such a class, has advanced in beauty and ornateness.
78 31| With such, it will be an advantage to have studied logic. Others
79 5 | one in our state richer in advantages, more splendid in its prospects,
80 10| choosing a more doughty adversary. For myself, let it be enough
81 7 | to give the support of my advocacy in the emperor’s presence
82 15| than that which separates Afer, Africanus, or yourselves
83 9 | stumbles into some troublesome affair, he will run to Secundus
84 6 | intrust him with difficulties affecting themselves or their friends.
85 36| not in their absence by affidavit, but of being present and
86 25| there is a resemblance and affinity of intellect and moral purpose.
87 33| Messala, so to say, began afresh. As I have, it seems, explained
88 15| that which separates Afer, Africanus, or yourselves from Cicero
89 9 | I ask what good it is if Agamemnon or Jason speaks eloquently
90 25| and Lycurgus, while all agree in regarding this as pre-eminently
91 17| not, I imagine, Menenius Agrippa, who may seem ancient, whom
92 5 | which a man can always bring aid to friends, succour to strangers,
93 16| the period of Philip and Alexander, a period, however, which
94 2 | any supports from pursuits alien to his profession. ~
95 37| elections, the plundering of the allies, and the massacre of citizens.
96 21| antiqueness. We may, indeed, make allowance for Caius Julius Caesar,
97 | already
98 19| circumstances of the age and an altered taste in the popular ear.
99 20| the gestures of Roscius or Ambivius. So again the young, those
100 10| talent, if only they can amuse their leisure and push themselves
101 31| whether he has to address the angry, the biassed, the envious,
102 12| first with the gods, whose answers they published, and at whose
103 37| received, the mightier her antagonist, the sharper the conflicts
104 20| Caecina? In our day the judge anticipates the speaker, and unless
105 42| will Messala before the antiquarians. And I, rejoined Aper, will
106 37| found in the libraries of antiquaries, which Mucianus is just
107 21| simply on the side of his antiqueness. We may, indeed, make allowance
108 37| his Milo, his Verres, and Antonius, which have shed over him
109 20| whose studies are on the anvil, who go after the orators
110 13| fountains far away from anxieties and cares, and the necessity
111 6 | sudden effort, his very anxiety enhances the joy of success,
112 40| there any ignorant fellow, anybody, in short, could do anything.
113 12| dive into a remoter age, an Apollo himself. Or, if you think
114 19| treatises by Hermagoras and Apollodorus. Any one who was supposed
115 14| then too with Maternus’s apology for his poems in a lively
116 2 | subject of his tragedy he had apparently forgotten himself and thought
117 31| smoothly flowing speech, appealing to the common sentiments
118 2 | application, if it should appear that his genius did not
119 2 | their homes and when they appeared in public, from a singular
120 11| pursuit of poetry, but he appeased me by a sort of stratagem,
121 21| studied with the Menenii and Appii. At any rate he imitated
122 18| found critics who admired Appius Caecus more than Cato? We
123 32| for an orator, I have been applauding my own follies. ~
124 22| to oratory, the first who applied a principle of selection
125 13| please, whenever the day appointed by my own fates shall come;
126 33| practice which seem specially appropriate to the orator. ~
127 10| will say, came the decisive approval; this is the style which
128 25| himself, I presume, were apt to be envious and ill-natured,
129 5 | assuredly, as I have found an arbiter for this dispute, I will
130 37| Quintius, or of Licinius Archias, which make Cicero a great
131 10| In truth, with you the ardour of a peculiarly noble nature
132 10| practise even the arts of the arena, and if the gods had given
133 15| yourself and your brother, you argued that nobody in this age
134 37| speaking of an art which arose more easily in stormy and
135 13| pallors of fame. Let me not be aroused by a tumult of morning visitors,
136 3 | which I have in my own mind arranged and formed. I am therefore
137 26| vigour. The first to despise arrangement, to cast off propriety and
138 22| passages, and invented certain arrangements of the sentence, at least
139 21| common herd, as Canutius, or Arrius, and others in the same
140 7 | colonies, as soon as they have arrived at Rome, ask for him and
141 34| with this they could easily ascertain what was liked or disapproved
142 14| having by your life of Julius Asiaticus given it the promise of
143 21| read his speeches against Asitius or Drusus! Certainly his
144 39| place, for the judge keeps asking when you are going to open
145 21| ancients, and from falling asleep at others. I do not single
146 25| whom Aper has persistently assailed, he must not expect me to
147 6 | on him alone, the people assembling and gathering round him
148 34| in the law-court and the assembly, and thus he picked up the
149 31| occasion. Some there are whose assent is more secured by an incisive
150 33| Aper and Secundus having assented, Messala, so to say, began
151 19| who was the first, they assert, to deviate from the old
152 29| proof of ability, but by assiduous court and cunning tricks
153 16| prevail on you to give me your assistance in our discussion. I can
154 5 | himself behind a number of associates. I single him out for accusation
155 20| decide. What if you were to assume that the temples of the
156 6 | any emotion he has himself assumed. I am now reckoning the
157 24| philosophical school of assuming the part of an opponent.
158 35| and striplings with equal assurance address, and are addressed
159 35| heavens! what strange and astonishing productions are the result!
160 40| own state, while it went astray and wore out its strength
161 36| case the state was torn asunder, but the eloquence of the
162 40| Rhodes and a host of them at Athens, but there the people, there
163 28| Augustus, Cornelia, Aurelia, Atia, directed their children’
164 5 | acquire connections, and attach the provinces, he is throwing
165 34| eloquence, and, although they attached themselves to one pleader,
166 17| the arms of Caesar when he attacked their island. So, had this
167 29| room has it left for worthy attainments! Few indeed are to be found
168 34| boy used to accompany and attend him, and be present at all
169 29| Greek servant-girl who is attended by one or two, commonly
170 9 | who walks by his side or attends his receptions or follows
171 30| I will first recall your attention to the training which we
172 32| tradition to have been a most attentive hearer of Plato? Cicero
173 18| Calvus was bloodless and attenuated, Brutus slovenly and lax.
174 26| many-coloured and meretricious attire. Indeed, neither for an
175 31| studied logic. Others are more attracted by a diffuse and smoothly
176 9 | of his friends, and the attractions of the capital; he must
177 5 | splendid in its prospects, more attractive in fame at home, more illustrious
178 23| opinion of the eloquence of Aufidius Bassus, and Servilius Nonianus
179 12| greater glory, or honours more august, first with the gods, whose
180 20| speeches for Marcus Tullius and Aulus Caecina? In our day the
181 28| of Augustus, Cornelia, Aurelia, Atia, directed their children’
182 9 | bring no dignity to the author, nor do they improve his
183 30| taken, and on the reading of authors, on the study of antiquity
184 27| speaking of the ancients, avail yourself of ancient freedom,
185 40| the common impulse of envy availed themselves of the popular
186 32| least expect it. Even the average citizen, and not only the
187 11| in the senate except to avert peril from another. ~
188 19| order that the orator may avoid offence to the fastidious
189 31| produce this result they were aware that it was necessary not
190 18| indeed are rough, unpolished, awkward, and ungainly, and I wish
191 8 | honours and splendours, aye and substantial wealth,
192 6 | and even in old age, men backed by the influence of the
193 5 | consequently terrible, he baffled the sagacious but untrained
194 32| learned; and eloquence, banished, so to say, from her proper
195 9 | complimentary, a most illustrious bard; but who walks by his side
196 12| it abounded in poets and bards, men who could sing of good
197 10| its pleadings and its real battles. I do this the more because
198 16| for the attack, and cannot bear with patience our union
199 17| they strove to drive and beat back from their shores the
200 23| I observe, the choicest beauties of the ancients. And you,
201 37| that these evils should not befall us, and the best condition
202 9 | he is forced actually to beg and canvass for people who
203 | begin
204 20| tolerate an advocate who begins by speaking of the feebleness
205 40| respect for merit, or seemly behaviour in the magistrates, produced
206 | behind
207 35| they are the reverse of beneficial. Two kinds of subject-matter
208 3 | and formed. I am therefore bent on hurrying on the publication
209 | Besides
210 39| Cornelius, Scaurus, Milo, Bestia, and Vatinius, so that even
211 36| adapted his wisdom to the bewildered people’s capacity of conviction.
212 | beyond
213 28| noble lesson. Whatever its bias, whether to the soldier’
214 31| to address the angry, the biassed, the envious, the sorrowful,
215 41| everybody make the best of the blessings of his own age without disparaging
216 20| of being built of rough blocks and ill-shaped tiles, they
217 21| when a healthy and sound blood fills the limbs, and shows
218 12| present money-getting and blood-stained eloquence, its use is modern,
219 18| Cicero’s opinion Calvus was bloodless and attenuated, Brutus slovenly
220 9 | to say, cut short in the bloom and the flower, and does
221 4 | Maternus, would be quite a blow to us, had not our controversy
222 18| deal with the subject more boldly and confidently, but I must
223 31| To impress such we must borrow from the Peripatetics commonplaces
224 28| nurse, but in that mother’s bosom and embrace, and it was
225 19| the ancients fix as the boundary, so to say, of antiquity,
226 12| Euripides or Sophocles is bounded by a limit not narrower
227 41| insinuation and exceeding proper bounds, when the clemency of the
228 39| squeeze, and, so to say, box ourselves up, when we chat
229 39| eloquence grows feeble and breaks down. Nay more; we find
230 5 | danger to ourselves, the breast-plate and the sword are not, I
231 37| judicial decision, and on bribery at elections, the plundering
232 38| restricted all this, and put a bridle, so to say, on eloquence,
233 36| good for them to give a brief vote in the senate without
234 36| fiercer with movement, and brighter as it burns. On this same
235 17| saw myself an old man in Britain who declared that he was
236 34| for they were studying in broad daylight, in the very thick
237 33| obscure, and distinguishes broadly between theory and practice,
238 11| fame, when in Nero’s time I broke the wicked power of Vatinius
239 11| crave no more than for the bronzes and busts which have invaded
240 15| eloquence of yourself and your brother, you argued that nobody
241 22| the style is like a rough building, the wall of which indeed
242 20| because, instead of being built of rough blocks and ill-shaped
243 1 | yours, to undertake the burden of so serious an inquiry,
244 36| movement, and brighter as it burns. On this same principle
245 10| peculiarly noble nature bursts forth, and the offence you
246 10| merely your tragedian’s buskin or the measures of heroic
247 12| composed not in the midst of bustle, or with a suitor sitting
248 7 | Rome, not only with the busy class, intent on public
249 19| and that there is scarce a bystander in the throng who, if not
250 20| eloquence. Even the mob of bystanders, and the chance listeners
251 20| Marcus Tullius and Aulus Caecina? In our day the judge anticipates
252 18| critics who admired Appius Caecus more than Cato? We know
253 3 | municipalities, and towns, are calling you to the courts. You could
254 13| prefer Virgil’s serene, calm, and peaceful retirement,
255 10| answer. Hence, you will say, came the decisive approval; this
256 21| any of the common herd, as Canutius, or Arrius, and others in
257 9 | forced actually to beg and canvass for people who will condescend
258 1 | mean opinion either of our capacities, if we cannot reach the
259 8 | corners of the world as at Capua or Vercellae, where they
260 3 | the book to revise it more carefully, and, after striking out
261 22| lengthy in his narrations, careless about digressions; he is
262 28| indolence of the young, the carelessness of parents, the ignorance
263 9 | and substantial fruit. He carries away with him not a single
264 26| despise arrangement, to cast off propriety and delicacy
265 10| or by the impulse of a casual and sudden speech. You have,
266 37| great orator; it is his Catiline, his Milo, his Verres, and
267 19| who was supposed to have caught a scent of philosophy, and
268 25| brilliancy, Caelius is the more caustic, Brutus the more earnest,
269 4 | practice. You, in fact, never cease from abusing and inveighing
270 35| Crassus and Domitius were censors, they were ordered, as Cicero
271 26| into the field. When he had censured Asinius, Caelius, and Calvus,
272 13| bound as they are by the chain of flattery, they are never
273 28| beginning reared, not in the chamber of a purchased nurse, but
274 20| mob of bystanders, and the chance listeners who flock in,
275 41| some god in fact suddenly changed your lives and your age,
276 34| was always crowded, always changing, made up of unfriendly as
277 29| Really I think that the characteristic and peculiar vices of this
278 9 | own home, and pretty and charming they are, though the result
279 28| citizen’s son, the child of a chaste mother, was from the beginning
280 39| box ourselves up, when we chat with the judges! How much
281 10| style which the lecture-room chiefly praises, and which next
282 6 | himself? Nay, more; the childless, the rich, and the powerful
283 6 | paid not to his wealth, his childlessness, or his possession of some
284 19| they ought to wait till he chooses to speak on the matter in
285 15| Ephesus or Mitylene with a chorus of rhetoricians and their
286 20| an actor on the stage who chose to reproduce the gestures
287 22| periods after the fashion of chronicles. The orator must shun an
288 6 | gathering round him in a circle, and taking from the orator
289 8 | it is pleasanter to me to cite recent and modern examples
290 31| those things which can be classed neither among virtues nor
291 29| and whenever we enter a classroom, what else is the conversation
292 17| the twenty-eight years of Claudius and Nero, the one memorable
293 23| stock ending of every third clause in all Cicero’s speeches, “
294 22| sentences and not end all his clauses in one and the same way.
295 16| have just said, and he has clearly for some time been girding
296 41| proper bounds, when the clemency of the judge offers itself
297 1 | to the ancients, and the clever speakers of this day we
298 2 | reputation for eloquence by his cleverness and natural powers, more
299 10| by their own confession, cling to the poet as much as to
300 3 | deterring you, Maternus, from clinging to your Cato with its provocations?
301 32| retinue over our souls, now clipped and shorn, without state,
302 21| other works equally dull and cold, unless it is some one who
303 39| Vatinius, so that even the coldest speaker might have been
304 36| decisively superior was he to his colleagues in office, the more influence
305 37| which Mucianus is just now collecting, and which have already
306 18| I have to deal with them collectively. ~
307 10| arms meant by nature for combat to waste themselves on the
308 31| The Academy will give us combativeness, Plato, sublimity, Xenophon,
309 23| Maternus and Secundus, combine charm and finish of expression
310 19| introduced some philosophical commonplace into his speech, was praised
311 31| borrow from the Peripatetics commonplaces suited and ready prepared
312 40| called freedom; it is the companion of sedition, the stimulant
313 13| lot, with its delightful companionships. I should not be afraid
314 35| The persuasive, as being comparatively easy and requiring less
315 24| the ancients, nor do we compare any of ourselves, though
316 13| should not be afraid of comparing it with the harassing and
317 4 | write verses, or who will compel me by his additional authority
318 10| at any time necessity has compelled us on behalf of an imperilled
319 40| as an orator was a poor compensation for the death he died. ~
320 41| it would be better not to complain than to have to seek redress.
321 9 | reading is followed by a complete success, all the glory is,
322 33| not think that you have completed the task which you undertook.
323 9 | or, if the phrase be more complimentary, a most illustrious bard;
324 26| to the boast that their compositions are given with the tones
325 15| that the glory which others concede to you, you deny to yourself.
326 29| and horses, are all but conceived in the mother’s womb. When
327 31| depravity of vice, and the conception of those things which can
328 27| ancients; as far as I am concerned, it is admitted. We are
329 23| posterity will speak the truth concerning you. ~
330 18| him inflated, turgid, not concise enough, but unduly diffuse
331 23| when the case demands it, conciseness, when it is possible, elegance
332 38| was under the necessity of concluding within a very few hours;
333 16| not allow our age to be condemned, unheard and undefended,
334 9 | canvass for people who will condescend to be his hearers, and not
335 37| befall us, and the best condition of the state is that in
336 10| approved, our liberty of speech condoned. ~
337 6 | the whole world, readily confessing, amid the utmost affluence
338 10| their labours, by their own confession, cling to the poet as much
339 18| subject more boldly and confidently, but I must first observe
340 30| unlike all other arts, is not confined within narrow and straitened
341 34| in the very thick of the conflict, where no one can say anything
342 37| antagonist, the sharper the conflicts she has freely chosen, the
343 20| the age of our orators, in conforming itself to the ear and the
344 36| when, amid a universal confusion that needed one guiding
345 14| expression on each face, he conjectured that their conversation
346 18| is in fact more closely connected with us than with Servius
347 36| Hence, laws without end and consequent popularity; hence, speeches
348 5 | fury? Armed with this, and consequently terrible, he baffled the
349 36| reputation of a good speaker was considered an honour and a glory, so
350 7 | which it was my privilege, considering the insignificance of my
351 15| them by myself. That which consoles some minds, to me increases
352 32| makes itself visible and conspicuous where you would least expect
353 16| and undefended, by this conspiracy of yours. First, however,
354 20| of the feebleness of his constitution, as is usual in the openings
355 41| enjoy particularly robust constitutions and vigorous frames, so
356 32| utter poverty of thought and constrained periods. Thus she who, once
357 17| himself and Quintus Pedius consuls in the room of Pansa and
358 12| hearts which no vice had contaminated. Oracles spoke under these
359 22| the same battle with his contemporaries which I have with you. They
360 26| the rest. As it is, he has contented himself with singling out
361 3 | far from these tragedies contenting you, that you have abandoned
362 30| learning are seen in the contents of their own books. You
363 28| 28 Messala continued. Far from obscure are the
364 33| orators, and pointed out the contrast presented by our idleness
365 23| express passion, and yet control an orator’s licence. And
366 31| the voice in fictitious controversies quite remote from reality,
367 42| Messala, some points I should controvert, some on which I should
368 36| Indeed, they had quite convinced themselves that without
369 18| the elder Cato is full and copious; Crassus compared with Gracchus
370 28| of Caesar, of Augustus, Cornelia, Aurelia, Atia, directed
371 39| accusation and the defence of Cornelius, Scaurus, Milo, Bestia,
372 8 | great men in the remotest corners of the world as at Capua
373 25| implying that it is not correct to call ancients those whom
374 12| is modern, its origin in corrupt manners, and, as you said,
375 31| law-court, honour in the council-chamber, are our usual topics of
376 1 | call pleaders, advocates, counsellors, anything rather than orators.
377 36| people and senate with their counsels and influence. Indeed, they
378 12| such delight to me that I count among the chief enjoyments
379 21| and the bones cannot be counted, but when a healthy and
380 17| to say, have linked and coupled together. ~
381 26| of them has Aper had the courage to mention, and, so to say,
382 36| showed them respect, and courted their favour as soon as
383 13| there in their lot to be coveted? Is it that they are in
384 31| every instrument of his craft in readiness, or in reserve
385 11| for crowded receptions I crave no more than for the bronzes
386 5 | orator by which he might create and retain friendships,
387 29| worst of all the slaves, creatures utterly unfit for any important
388 40| heard of at Sparta or at Crete? A very strict discipline
389 41| voluntary prosecutions, when crimes are so rare and slight,
390 21| and suits the ear of the critic, whence you may infer that
391 1 | advocate, who, after much criticism and ridicule of old times,
392 6 | and stand amid the hushed crowd, with every eye on him alone,
393 7 | or to ministers of the crown. On such occasions I seem
394 6 | bestowed on the sowing and cultivation of some plants, yet those
395 29| but by assiduous court and cunning tricks of flattery. ~
396 2 | 2 It was the day after Curiatius Maternus had given a reading
397 37| Lentuli, Metelli, Luculli, and Curios, and the rest of our nobles,
398 26| of Lucius Crassus to the curls of Maecenas or the jingles
399 9 | the glory is, so to say, cut short in the bloom and the
400 26| prettily and our actors dance eloquently. For myself I
401 26| singer, the gestures of the dancer. Hence the exclamation,
402 10| friend, but, what is more dangerous, for the sake of Cato. Nor
403 26| ancient orators, and has not dared to praise any of their successors,
404 24| eloquence, the more marked as dates have proved that from the
405 34| they were studying in broad daylight, in the very thick of the
406 20| descriptive sketches, he is deaf to his eloquence. Even the
407 10| you, Maternus, that I am dealing; for, when your genius might
408 35| kinds of subject-matter are dealt with before the rhetoricians,
409 28| ancient glory, not from dearth of men, but from the indolence
410 2 | talk, their more serious debates, and their private and esoteric
411 27| successive steps of the ruin and decay of eloquence. ~ Maternus
412 17| has stated, on the 5th of December, that he was slain. In that
413 41| political questions are decided not by an ignorant multitude,
414 10| you will say, came the decisive approval; this is the style
415 36| obtain office, the more decisively superior was he to his colleagues
416 21| reads Caesar’s speech for Decius the Samnite, or that of
417 31| was necessary not only to declaim in the schools of rhetoricians,
418 35| reality are actually used for declamation. Thus the reward of a tyrannicide,
419 17| an old man in Britain who declared that he was present at the
420 28| and all other arts have declined from their ancient glory,
421 32| understand the senate’s decrees, they actually scoff at
422 12| men who could sing of good deeds, but not defend evil actions.
423 25| imperfectly developed, had certain defects. ~
424 41| so rare and slight, or of defences full of spiteful insinuation
425 5 | know not a more influential defendant. ~ He may rest secure, said
426 24| of eloquence has he been defending our age? How full and varied
427 40| obedience and subjection, a defiant, reckless, presumptuous
428 32| and unseemly and shameful deficiencies. They are ignorant of the
429 30| s works that he was not deficient in the knowledge of geometry,
430 16| orators you limit by your definition? When I hear of ancients,
431 29| glib talk, which lead on by degrees to shamelessness and to
432 21| that of Brutus for King Deiotarus, or other works equally
433 10| and safety, when you are deliberately choosing a more doughty
434 14| you are engaged in private deliberation, or the preparation of some
435 26| to cast off propriety and delicacy of expression, confused
436 5 | friends, succour to strangers, deliverance to the imperilled, while
437 21| eloquence than his divine genius demanded from him, and leave him
438 11| praises of them and go on to demolish poets and the pursuit of
439 10| those to whom nature has denied the orator’s talent, if
440 8 | it is easier to find men denouncing than despising. It is these
441 2 | that his genius did not depend on any supports from pursuits
442 8 | while his other friends are dependent on what he has given them,
443 33| imagine, deny that eloquence depends much less on art and theory
444 31| the power of virtue, the depravity of vice, and the conception
445 39| people in their tribes and deputations from the towns and indeed
446 6 | pass now to the pleasure derived from the orator’s eloquence.
447 33| outlines. You have indeed described to us the usual equipment
448 20| grace and elegance of the descriptive sketches, he is deaf to
449 31| acquaintance with law is desirable, and in several this last-mentioned
450 4 | authority to do what I have long desired, to give up the petty subtleties
451 8 | distinguished for virtue, one even despised for the appearance of his
452 8 | find men denouncing than despising. It is these honours and
453 17| his own choice or by some destiny, he might have heard Caesar
454 1 | age is so forlorn and so destitute of the glory of eloquence
455 32| requires, some single and detached subject. In the first place
456 32| speakers of our time that we detect in their pleadings the style
457 10| as implying that I would deter from poetry those to whom
458 3 | ill-natured people no effect in deterring you, Maternus, from clinging
459 19| the first, they assert, to deviate from the old and plain path
460 12| you said, Aper, it is a device to serve as a weapon. But
461 5 | and anyone else who is devoted to the pursuit of poetry
462 10| the only object of their devotion, the sole reward of their
463 40| compensation for the death he died. ~
464 25| and you see that amid wide differences of genius, there is a resemblance
465 15| you yourself, Aper, think differently, though now and then you
466 6 | order to intrust him with difficulties affecting themselves or
467 15| minds, to me increases the difficulty. For I perceive that even
468 28| through Italy, and are now diffusing themselves into the provinces.
469 13| Domitius Aper on the score of a dignified life or an enduring reputation.
470 22| narrations, careless about digressions; he is slow to rouse himself,
471 33| ignorance to their very diligent and fruitful studies. I
472 2 | which urged me to listen diligently to their trivial talk, their
473 7 | Whose name does the father din into his children’s ears
474 30| of the Academy and under Diodotus the Stoic; that not content
475 28| Cornelia, Aurelia, Atia, directed their children’s education
476 19| links, and all the other directions prescribed in those driest
477 34| ascertain what was liked or disapproved in each speaker. Thus they
478 34| whom I am speaking, the disciple of orators, the listener
479 40| strength in factious strife and discord, with neither peace in the
480 18| several varieties are to be discovered. Nor does it at once follow
481 35| anything, in short, daily discussed in our schools, never, or
482 36| glory, so it was thought a disgrace to seem mute and speechless.
483 28| unseemly word or to do a disgraceful act. With scrupulous piety
484 34| success nor failure could be disguised. You know, of course, that
485 31| and evil, of honour and dishonour, of right and wrong. All
486 23| hardly endures them. They are dismal and uncouth, and the very
487 36| community allow, still in the disorder and licence of the past
488 12| in our own day more who disparage Cicero’s than Virgil’s glory.
489 25| purpose. Grant that they disparaged each other (and certainly
490 26| himself with singling out for disparagement some ancient orators, and
491 18| Cicero was not without his disparagers, who thought him inflated,
492 1 | plausible reason, thereby displaying the peculiarities of his
493 7 | at least who have a right disposition and a worthy confidence
494 8 | Yet even these they do not disregard, and certainly not riches
495 16| left to us. Aper usually dissents, as you have just said,
496 8 | examples than those of a distant and forgotten past), I would
497 33| this somewhat obscure, and distinguishes broadly between theory and
498 12| Linus, and, if you care to dive into a remoter age, an Apollo
499 17| close. You must not then divide the age, and habitually
500 19| rules of rhetoricians or the dogmas of philosophers. But now
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