XLIII. " Do yon not observe that Caius Acnleo,^ a Bonian knight, a man of the moat acute genius in the world, but of little learning in other sciences, who now lives, and has always lived with me, understands the civil law so well, that none even of the most skiltnl, if you except my friend Sceevola, here, can be preferred to him? Everything in it, indeed, ia set phunly before our eyes, connected with our daily habits, with our intercourse among men, and with the fonun, and ia not contained in a vast quantity of writing, or many lai^e Tolumeti; for the element^ that were at first published by several writers are the same; and the same things, with the change of a few words, have beea repeatedly written by the same authors. Added to this, that the civil law may bo more readily learned and uniterstood, there is (what moat people little imagine) a wonderful pleasure and delight ia acquiring a knowledge of it. For, whether any person ia attracted by the study of antiquity,^ there ia, in every part of the civil law, in the pontifical books, and in the Twelve ' Tbie AouJeo miLrried Cicero'a aunt by the muUier'a side, as ba tells nt in the begiLning ot tbe sscoud book of this treatise, c. 1, mid bia ■oiu by that marriage, cousin! to Cicero and his brother Quintua, were ■11 brsd up together with them, in a method approved by L. Cmeaos, the chief character in this dialogue, and by tboee veiy nuBtara under whom Cntseus hinuelf had been. B.
' Orellioa retoins kice alUaa itodia in hia test, but aobiowIodgeB aKeiHt to be corrupt. Wytteobach conjectured oniijuo attidia, for itnii^iialia liwlia. EUeadt obgervea Umt Madvig proposed jEliana, trom Lucius.^lius Stilo. the niaster of Viiito, eitalled by Cioen^ Brut. EG; Acad. 1 2, 8; Legg. a 23. See Suetonius, de HI Oramm. &Sj and AuL GelL x. 21. This conjecture, saye Heiuicbseo, will ■uit very well with Hie word hac, which Orasaua may be supponed (o have BBsd, becauK jEliua Stilo was then alive, and engaged ia thou ON THE CHAKAOTEK OP THK ORATOR.
Tables, abuDdance of instruction as to ancient mattera, Bince not only the original aense of ivordB is thence miderstood, but certain kinds of law proceedings illustrate the cuBtoma and Uvea of our ancestors; mr if he has a view to the science of government (which Sotevola judges not to belong to the orator, but to science of another sort), he will find it all ( priaed in the Twelve Tables, every advantage of civil govern- ment, and every part of it being there described; or if authoritative and vaunting philosophy delight him, (I will apeak very boldly,) he will Sad there the sources of all the philosophers' dinputations, which lie in ciyil laws and enact- ments; for from these we perceive that virtue is above all things desirable, since honest, just, and conscientious industiy is ennobled with honours, rewards, and distinctions; but the vioea and frauds of mankind are punished by fines, ignominy, imprisonment, stripes, banishment, and death; and we are tanght, not by disputations endless and full of discord, but by the authority and mandate of the laws, to hold our appe- tites in subjection, to restrain ail our pasaions, to defend our own property, and to keep our thoughts, eyes, and hands, from, that of others.
XLIV. " Though all the world esclaim against me, I will aay what I think; that single little book of the Twelve Tables, if any one look to the fonnlaiua and sources of laws, seems to ma, assuredly, to surpass the libraries of all the philo- aophera, both in weight of authority, and in plenitude of utility. And if our country has our love, as it ought to have in the highest degree, — our country, I aay, of which the force and natural attraction is so strong, that one of the wisest of mankind preferred bis Itbaca, fiied, like a little neat, among the roughest of rocks, to immortality itself, — ■with what aifection ought we to be warmed tov^rds such a country as ours, which, preeminently above all other oountries, is the seat of virtue, empire, and dignityj Its spirit, customs, and discipline ought to be our firet objects of study, both because our country is the parent of ns all, and because as much wisdom must be thought to have been em- Tiloyed in framing such laws, as in establishing so vast and powerful an empire. You will receive also this pleasure and delight from the study of the law, that you will then most readily comprehend how iar our ancestors excelled other I DE OIUTOltE; OR, I DE OIUTOltE; OR, nations in wisdom, if you compare oiir lawH with those of their Lycurgus, Dr&co, and Solou. It ia indeed iacredibls how undigested and almost ridiculoiia ia aU civil law, except our own; on which Bubjeot I am accustomed to say muob in my daily conversation, when I am jinxising the wisdom of our countrymen aboTe that of all other men, and especially of the Greeks. For these reaaons have I declared, Sceevola, that the knoirledgB of the civil law is indispensable to thrae who would become accompliahed orators.
XL V. " And who does not know what an accession of honour, popularity, and dignity, such knowledge, even of itself, brings with it to those who are eminent in iti As, therefore, among the Greeka, men of tho lowest rank, induced by a trifling reward, olfer thcmselTes as assistants to the pleadera ou trials (men who are by them caUed pragmatki)^ so in our city, on the contrary, every personage of the moat eminent tank and character, such as that jElins Sestus,^ who, for his knowledge ia the civil law, was called by our great poet, ' A man of thought and prudence, nobly wise,' and many beaidea, who, after arriving at distinction by means ' It appears from Qulntjliui and Juvenal, that this was a. Gomon □UBtoiQ aa well aa a Qraciui, under tho emperors; tjie; are also mBa- tianod hj UlpiaD. But in Cicero's time tbe Patnmi eatiiarvm, or advocates, though they studied nothing but oratory, and were in general ignorant of the taw, yet did not mnko uae of any of these low people cslled PTogmalid, a« the Oreeka did at that time, but upon any doubta on tho law, applied themeelves to men of the greateat repu- tation in tbat BCionce, auch aa the Scievolse. But under the emparora IB not the same encouragement for these great man to study snco; the oratora, therefore, fell of neceFu^ity into the Grecian Quint. liL 3; "Naque ego sum noatri moria ignorua, obli- orum, qui velut od Arculaa aedent, et tela agentibuB eubmi- . neque idem Gneoos neacio factitare, imds nomen his Pnig- m datum aat." Juv, Bat. vii. 123: Si cjuator egiati, ai contigit aureua onua, Inde oadunt pMies ej: ftedere Pragmaticorum. B. »'Ab the colleotion of focma published by Flaviua, and from him called Jul dviU Plavianum, soon grew defectiTe, as new contmcts aroae ovary day, another was afterwardB compiled, or ratbor only mode pubBo, by Seitus-KIus, for the forma eeem to have been composed as tho dif- ferent emergencies oroao, by such of the patricians as understood the law, and tohave been by them seoretedtoflitendtheirown influence; however, this eoUection, wherein were many new forms adapted to the <ases and ciroamBtaoBea which bad happened since Oxb time of Flaviua, went under the title of Jul JEUammi, from tbia iBEus here praised by Enniua..
of their ability, attained sach influeuce, tliat' in nnEweriag questions on points of law,' they fouad their authority of more weight than even their abihty. For eonobliag and dignifying old age, indeed, what can he a more honourable resource than tho interpretation of the law! For myself, I have, even from my youth, been, securiag this resource, not merely with a view to benefit in pleadings in the forum, but also for an honour and ornament to the decline of life; go that, when my strength begins to fail me (for which the time is even now almost approaching), I may, by that means, pre- Berve ray house Irom BoHtude. For what is more noble thaa for an old man, who has held the highest honours and offices of the state, to be able justly to say for himseif, that which the Pythian Apollo says in Ennius, that he is the persoa from whom, if not nations and kings, yet all hia fellow- citizeos, solicit advice, * Uncertain how lo act; wtam, b j my aid,, I aanil away undonbting, full of counael, No mora with raahneaa things perplai'd to swaj; ' for without doubt the house of an eminent lawyer is the oracle of the whole city. Of this fact tho gate and vestibule of our friend Quintua Mucins is a proof, which, even in his very infirm state of health, and advanced age, is daily frequented by a vast crowd of citizens, and by persons of the highest rank and splendour.
XLVI. " It requires no very long explanation to show why I think the public lawa^ also, which concern the state and government, as well as the records of history, and the preoe- > The ciiBtom Eeipondetidi de Jtire, nnd the interpretatianB and de^ cisions of the learned, were bo uoivereallf approvod. that, althongb they were unwritten, they became a. new epecies of law, aad were oaHad Auclcrittu, or Saponia Prndentmn. This custom continued to the time of Aoguatus without intamiptiDn, who aeleetod purticular lawyara, »ad gare them the aanotion of a patent; hut then grew ieto desuetude, till Hadiian renewed thia office or gtaat, which made bo ooDBiderable a. branch of the Roman law. B.
' j»™ pttWini. Dr. Taylor, in hia History of the Roman Law, p. 62, has given ua the heads of the Roman /lu puificum, which were, — religion and divine worship — peace and war— legislation — exchequer aod ra^id, eechaata^the prerogative — law of treasona — taxee and impoata — coin- age— juriadictien — magiatraciea — regalia — embossiea — hnnoiira and titlaB-— collages, Bchoole, eerporatione — CBstlea and fortiflcationa— fairs, mercata, etaple — foreata — naturaliiiaUon. B, SE OBATORE,' OB, dents of antiquity, ought to be known to the orator; for aa in causoa and trials relative to private af&ira, bis lauguage is often to be borrowed from the civil law, and therefore, as we I said before, tha knowledge of the civil la.w is necesaarj to the I orator J so in regard to caufica affecting pubUc matters, before our courts, iu assemblies of the people, and in the senate, all the history of these and of post times, the authority of public law, the system and science of governing the state, ought to be at the command of orators occupied with affairs of govem- ment, as the very groundwork of their apeecheai' ^ For we ore not contemplating, in this discourse, the character of an every-day pleader, bawler, or barrator, but that of a man, who, in the first place, may be, as it were, the high-priest of this profession, for which, though natnre herself baa givea rich endowments to man, yet it was thought to be a god that gave it, 80 that the very thing which ia the distinguishing property of man, might not seem to have been acquired by ourselves, but bestowed upon us by some divinity; who, ia the next place, con move with safety even amid the weapons of his adversariea, distingimhed not go mucb by a hendd's caduceus,^ as by hia title of orator; who, likewise, is able, by means of his eloquence, to expose guilt and deceit to the hatred of his countrymen, aad to restrain them by penalties; who can also, with the shield of bis genius, protect inno- cence from punishmeDt; who can rouse a spiritless and de- spondiug people to giory, or reckim them from infatuation, or inflame their rage against the guilty, or mitigate it, if incited ogainst the virtuous; who, fiaidly, whatever feeling in the minds of men his object and cause require, can either excite or calm it by his eloquenceJ If any cue supposes that this power has either been sufficiently set forth by those who have written on the art of apealung, or can be set forth by me iu so brief a space, he is greatly mistaken, and understands neither my inabiii^, nor the magnitude of tha Bubject. For my own part, since it was your desire, I thought, that the fountains ought to be shown you, from which you ' Tan^uaan aliqita tnalfriu, Ernesti's tt>it, layn Orellius, has aHa, hy mialake. Aliqua ia not vety satiafaotory. Nobbo, tha editor of' TauoliiiitE'B text, retaina EmMti'B alia.
; wand, readers hie parson i m ,] OS THE CHAHAOTEB OP THE OKATOK. 199 miglit draw, and the roads which, you might pursue, not so that I should become jour guide (which would be an eudlesB anduuueceBaary labour), but so that I might poiut out to you tiie way, and, as the practice is, might hold ou.t my fluger towards the spring."^ XLVII. "To me," remarked ScsBVola, "eaough appeare to have been eaid by you, aud more thau enough, to stimulate the eSbrts of these young mea, if they are but studiously inclined; for as they say that the illustrious Socrates used to observe that hie object was attained if any one was by his exJiortationa sufficiently incited to desire to know and under- stand virtue; (since to those who were persuaded to desire notliing BO much as to become good men, what remained to ^^ be learned itas easy;) so I consider that if you wish to pene- trate into those subjects which Cntssus has set before you in his remarks, you will, with the greatest ease, arrive at your object, after this course aud gate has been opened to you." "To UB," said Sulpiciua, "these instructions are eseeedingly pleafiunt and delightful; but tliere are a few things more which wo still desire to bear, especially those whioh were touched upon bo briefly by you, Crassus, in reference to onr ^tiry Ma an H.rt^ when you oonfeEscd that you did not despise them, but had learned them. If you will speak somewliat more at length on those points, you will satisfy ail the eugemess of our long desire. For we iuiTe now heard to what objects wB must dieot our ^brts, a point ■which is of great importance; but wa long to be instructed in the ways and nieana of pursuing those objects," " Then," said Crassus, " (since I, to detain you at my house ■with less difficulty, have rather complied with your desires, tiian my own habit or inclination,) what if we ask Antouius to tell us something of what he still keeps in reserve, aad has not yet made known to us, (on which subjects he complained, S while ago, that a book has already dropped from his pen.) and to reveal to us bis mysteries in the art of speaking l " As you please," said Sulpicius, " for, if Autonius speaks, wa sbaU still learn what you think." " I request of you then, AntoniuB," said Crassus, " since this task U put upon men of ' Vt fieri salet, Erneati conjectures -at did lotd, Ellendt thinkfl tfaa commoa reading right, leqidiing only tbat we ebould underBtoud A Qomtnonitrantilius.
I I I DB ohatobb; OB, our time of life by the stiidious inclinations of these youths, to deliver your sentimenta upon these subjects which, you Bee, are required from you."
XLVIII, "I see plainly, aud understand indeed," replied Antonius, "that 1 am caught, not only because those thinga are required from me in which I am ignorant and unprac- tised, but hecBuso these youug men do not permit me to avoid, on the present occasion, what I always carefully avoid in my public pleadings, namely, not to speak after yon, Craasua. But I will enter upon what you desire the more boldly, as I hope the same thing will happen to me in thia discussion as usually happens to me at the bar, that no flowers of rhetoric will be espeoted from me. For I am not going to speak about art, which I never learned, but about my own practice; and those very particulars which I have entered in my coramon-placo book are of this kind,' not ex~ pressed with anything like learning, but just as they are treated in business and pleadings j and if they do not meet with approbatiott from men of your extensive knowledge, you must blame your own unreasonableness, in requii-iug from me what I do not know; aud you must ptaiae my complaisance, since I make no difficulty in answering your questions, being induced, not by my own judgment, but your earnest desire." " Go ou, Antonius," rejoined Crassua, "for there is no danger that you will say anything otherwise than so discreetly that no one here will repent of having prompted you tft "I will go on, then," said Antonius, "and will do what think ought to be done in all discussions at the ment; I mean, thatltiie subject, whatever it may be, oil which the discussion is held, should be defineiJ so that the discourse may not be forced to wander aud stray from its course, from the disputauts not having the same notion of the matter under debate. If, for instance, it were inquired, 'What is theart of agenerair I should think that we ought to settle, at the outset, what a general is; and when he was defined to be a commander /or conducting a war, we might then proceed to speak of troops, of encampments, of marching in battle array, of engagements, of besieging towns, of provisions, of ' Nut recorded with itny elegance, but in the plain style in wliielL , I am now going to ezprese my aelf. Emati.
X.] OS THE OHAEACTER OF THE OEATOB. 201 laying and avoiding ambuscades, and other matters relative to the m&nogemeut of a war; and those who had the capacity and knowledge to dii-ect such afiairs I should call generals; and should adduce the examples of the Africaui aud Mimmi, and speak of Epaminondas, and Hannibal, and men of Euch. character. But if we should inquire what sort of character he ie, who should contribute his experience, and knowledge, and zeal to the management of the state, I should give this sort of definition, that he who wadenlancU hy vtkat meant the interests of the republic are secured and promoted, and employs those meaiM, is worthy to be esteemed a director in affairs of government, aitd a leader in public councils; and I should mention Fublius Lentulus, that chief of the senate,^ and Tiberius Gracchus the father, and Quintua Metellus, and Fublius AfricanuB, and Cains L^liug, and others without number, as well of our own city as of foreign states. But if it should be asked, ' Who truly deserved the name of a Iftwyerl' I should say that he deserves it -who is learned in the bwi, and that general usage^ which private persona observe in th^r intercourse in the community, who can give an am on any point, can plead, and exm take precautions for interests of his client; and I should name Sestus ^liuB, Manius Manilius, FubHus Mucins, as distinguished ii respects. XLIX. In like manner, to notice sciences o. important character, if a musician, if a grammarian, if a poet were the subject of consideration, I could state that which each of them possesses, and than which nothing more is to be expected from each. Even of the philosopher himself, who BJorLe, from his abilities and wisdom, professes almost eveiy- thing, there isa sort of definition, signifying, that Ae tf^ slvdiet to learn the powers, nattire,and causes of all thijtgs, divine and liuma/a, and to imderstand and explaim, the whole leiencs of liidnff virtuoTuly, niay justly deserve this appeUation. i_i' The orator, however, since it is about him that we are considering, I do not conceive to be exactly the same cha- racter that Crosaus makes him, who seemed to me to in- olude all knowledge of all matters and sciences, under the Bingle profession and name of an orator; but I regard him.
Ha wss cDuanl with Cneitia I 1 DE OHATORB; OB, [b. U * ELS one vjAo ean tus words agreeable to hear, and 1kavj}hU adapted to prove, not only in cautes thai are pleaded in lis forum, bat in cautei in general, I Him I call an orator, aoA ■would have him besideB accompHslied in deliTery and acfit and with a certain degree of wit. But our friend Crai eeemed to me to define the £iculty of &n orator, not by proper limits of his art, but by the almost immense limits of his own genius; for, by his definition, he delivered the helm* of civil government into the hands of his orator; a point,' which it appeared very strange to me, Sctevola, that yon should grant him; when the senate has often given its asaeat on affairs of the utmost consequence to yourself, though you have spoken briefly and without ornament. And M. Scaurua, who 1 hear is in the country, at his villa not far off, a man eminently skilled in a&ira of government, if he should hear that the authority which his gravity and counsels bear with them, is claimed by you, Crasaus, as you say that it is the property of the orator, he would, I believe, come hither without delay, and frighten us out of our talk by hia very countenance and aspect; who, though he is no contemptibls speaker, yet depends more upon hia judgment in aflairs of consequence, than upon his ability in speaking^ and, if any one has abilities in both these ways, he who i& of authority in the public councils, and a good senator, is not on those accounts an orator; and if he that is an eloquent and powerlU speaker be also eminent in civil administration, he did not acquire his political knowledge^ through oratory. Those talents differ very much in their nature, and are quite sepa- rate and distinct from each other; nor did Marcus Cato, Pubhus A&icanuB, Quiutus Metellus, Caius Lcolius, who were all eloquent, give lustre to their own orations, and to the dignity of the republic, by the same art and method.
L. '■ It is not enjoined, let me observe, by the nature of things, or by any law or custom, that one man must not know more than one art; and therefore, though Periclea waa the best orator in Alheus, and was also for many years director of the public counsels in that city, the talent for ' Ali^aaia aeienliam. For aKyuam Mmnitiiia conjectured iiiaii, which LuDbmUB, Brueati, and HiUler approve. WjiCtcnluch auggested o^ictunn, which lua been adopted by Sdiutz and Oielliiu. I have followed UiDutiiu.
i 1 I f TnB 0H4R4.CTER OF THE ORATOR. 203 both those charaotera must not be thought to belong to the same art because it eiisted iti the same man; nor if Publiua Crassus was both au orator and a lawyer, is the knowledge of the oivO law for that reason included in the power of speaking. For if every man wiio, while excelling in any art or scienee, has acquired another art or science in addition, ahall represent that hie additional knowledge ia a part of that in Tfhich he previously excelled,' we may," by such a mode of argument, pretend that to play well at tennis or counters,^ isapart of the knowledge of civil law, because Publius Muoiua ■was skilled in both; and, by parity of reaeonii^, those whom the Greeks call i^uotoi, ' natural philosophers,' may be re- garded as poets, because Empedocles the natural phUosopber ■wrote an excellent poem. But not even the pliilosophers themselves, who would have everything, as their own right, to be theirs, nnd in their possession, have the confidenue to say that geometry or music is a part of philosophy, because all a:Cknowledge Plato to have been eminently excellent in those Bciences. And if it be still your pleasure to attribute all Bcieaces to the orator, it wOl be hett«r for us, rather, to express ourselves to this effect, tTiat since eloquence must not be bald and unadorned, but marked and distinguished by a certain pleasing variety of manifold qualities, it is necessary for a good orator to have heard and seen much, to have gone over many subjects in thought and reflection, and many also ia reading; though not bo as to have taken posaeaaion of them as his own property, but to have tasted of them as things belonging to others. For I confess that the orator 'i should be a knowing man, not quite a tiro or novice in any: subject, not utterly ignorant or ineiperienced in any business j of life. ^ LL " Nor am I discomposed, Crassus, by those tragic argu- ments of yours,* on whicb the pliilosophers dwell most of.all; ■ ' iScia — eceeiZe*. ThecDmrnsntaloraaaynothingagainattheBafututBa. ' Ihto6isxia tanptu. This was u game piajed with couateca on s board, moved aooording to throws of the dioo, but differBnt from oar backgammon. The reader may Sod all that ia knowu of it in Adam'i Romui Antiquities, p. 42;!, aud Smith's Diot^ of Qr. and Eom. Ant. mit. LatruncuU.
' Jtlu tragcediis tiat. Persona nre eaid ttvgwdiaii in nvffii agire, who malu a small matter great by clamouring ovar it, as is dona bv actor^ PnxMC, See b. ii. o. 51; Quint. tL 1, 30.
D£ OBATOBEj Olt, I mean, when you said, That ita man can, hy »peakinff,excka the passions of his audience, or calm, them when excited, (in vikich efforts it is that tke power and greatness of ^ orator <xra chiejtj/ seen,) unless one who has gained a thorough insight into. _ the nature of all things, and the dispasiiiont and Tnolives f^/\ mankind; on mhich account philosophy must of necessity St J studied by the orator; a, study in 'which vie see that the wholc^j lives of men of the greatest talent and leisure are epent; tlwH copiousness and magnitude of whoBQ learning aod knowledgfiH I not only do not despite, but greatly admire j but, for U|V who are engaged iu bo busy & state, and auoh occupations ia tlie forum, it ia sufficient to know and say justso much about the manners of mankind aa is not inconsisteut with human nature. For what great and powerful orator, whose object was to make ajudgc angry with his adversary, ever hesitated, because he was ignorant whnt anger was, whether ' a. heat of temper,' or ' a desire of vengeance for pain received 1 ' ^ Who, when he wished to stir up and inflaiae other }M|ioi minds of the judges or people by his eloque^h c"" BUch things as a T uttered e said by the philosophej||T' part of whom deny that any passions whatever should be e^^Ud in the mind, and say that they who touae them in the breasts of the judges are guilty of a heinous crime, and part, who are inclined to be more tolerant, and to aceommodate themselvea more to the realities of life, say that such emotion^ught to be but very moderate and gentle. But the orator, by his eloquence, represents all those things which, in the common affiiirs of life, are considered evil and troublesome, and to be avoided, as heavier and mora grievous ttiauAey really are; and at tha eame time amplifies and embellishes, by power of language, those things which to the generality of mankind seem inviting and desirable; nor does he wish to appear ho very wise among fools, as that hta audience should think htm impertinent or a pedantic Greek, or, though they very much approve his under- standing, and admire his wisdom, yet should feel uneasy that they themselves are but idiots to him; hut he bo effectually penetrates the minds of men, so works upon their senses and feelings, that he has no occasi on for the definitions of philoso- phers, or to consider in the course of his speech, ' whether the chief good lies in the mind or in the body;' 'whether it is to be