chief, or to such a commajider, or from tlte seneite to any king or peopk, does it appear to yoii tbat because, oa such Bubjects, we must use a more accumto sort of language than ordinary, this kind of speakiag should bo counted aa & department of eloquence, and he furnished with peculiar precepts)" "By no means," replied Catulus; "for an eloquent man, \a speaking on subjects of that sort, will not be at a loss for that tolent which he has acquired by practice on other matters and topics." " Thoee other kijufe of Buhjects, therefore," continued Antonius, " which often require to be treated with eloquence, and which, as I said ,juBt now, (when I was praising eloquence,) beloug to the orator, bave neither any place in the division of the parts of oratory, nor fall under any peculiar kind of rules, and yet must be handled as eloquently as arguments in pleadings; such are reproof, exhortation, cousolation, all which demand the finest graces of language; yet theee matters need no rules from art." " I am decidedly of that opinion," said Catulus. "Well, then, to proceed," said Antonius, "what BOit of or&toi; on how great a master of language, do yeu think it requires to write itstory 1 " "If to write it as the Greeks have written, a mau of the highest powers," said Catulus; " if as our own countrymen, there is no need of an orator; it is auffioieut for the writer to tell tiuth." " But," rgoined Antociua, " that you may not despise those of our own country, the Greeks themselves too wrote at first just like our Cato, and Pictor, and Piso. For history was nothing else but a compilation of annala; and accordingly, for the Bake of preserving the memory of public events, the pontifex maaimus used to commit to writing the occurrences of every year, from the earliest period of Homnn affairs to the time of the pontifex Fublius Mucius, and bad them engrossed on white tablets, which he set forth as a register iu his own house, so that all the people had liberty to inspect it; and these records are yet called the Great Annals. This mode of writing many have adopted, and, without any ornaments of style, have left behind them simple chronicles of times, per- Bona, places, and events. Such, therefore, as were Phereoydes, HellaniouB, Acusilas,^ and many others among the Greeks, * Of these, Acuaikn or Acuailaua, a nataie of Argoa, voji the moat Kinent, according to Suidaa. Eileadt. The Dlhara iLre better Imowiw, ■ Orr THE CHAEACTEB OF THO OHiTOH.
are Gato, and Pictor, and Piao with us, who neither under- stand how composition is to be adorned (For oruaments of Btjle have been but reuently introduced among ua), and, pro- Tided what they related can be understood, thiuk brevity of expression the only merit Antipater,^ an excellent man, the friend of Crassus, raised himself a little, and gave history a higher tone; the others were not embellishers of iacts, but mere aarratora."
XIII. "It is," rejoined Catiilus, "as you say; but Anti- pater himself neither diversified his narrative by variety of thoughts, nor polished bis style by an apt arrangement of words, or a smooth and equal flow of language, but rough- hewed it as he could, being a man of no leamiag, and not extremely well qualified for an orator; yet he escelled, as you say, his predecessors." "It is far from being wonderful," said AntontuB, " if history has not yet made a figure in our language; for none of our countrymen study eloquence, un- less that it may bo displayed in causes and in the forum; whereas among the Greeks, the most eloquent men, wholly unconnected with public pleading, applied themselves as weU to other honourable studies as to writing history; for of Herodotus himself, who first embellished this kind of writing, we hear that he was never engaged in pleading; yet hia eloquence is so great as to delight me extremely, as far as I can understand Greek writing. After him, in my opinion, Tbucydides has certainly surpassed all historians in the art of oompositioa; for he is so abundant iu matter, that he almost equ^ the number of his words by the number of his thoughta; and he is so happy and judicious in his expressions," that you are at a loss to decide whether hia facts are set off by hia style, or hia style by his thoughts; and of him too we do not hear, though ho was engaged in, public afiatts, that he was of the number of those who pleaded causes, and he is said to have written his books at a time when he was removed from all civil employments, andj as usually happened to every ' Ludofl Cseliiifl Antipater publiehed a. luatory of the Punio WaiB, u Cicero sajs in hia Orator, and was fhe master of CrassuB, the speaker ia thflBe dialogues, as appears from Cic. Bmt. o. 26. Froml, ' Aplut (( pranu, A tcriplor, or tmiior apliu, will be oae " stsuctA rt rotunda eompoeitione verborum utene "; and prasiu will Ije, " in verbonun circuitione oec auperfluena uec clBudicans." EHokU.
DB OaiTORB; OE, DB OaiTORB; OE, eminent man at Athena, waa driven into banishment. Hi followed by Philiatua' of Syracuse, who, living in great iiimi-. liarity with the tyrant Dionyaiua, spent his leism'Q in writing bistoiy, and, aa I think, princip^Qly imitated Thucydidea. But afterwords, two men of great genius, Theopompua and EphoniB, coming from what we may call the noblest school of rhetoric, applied themselves to history by the peranaaion of their master Isocrates, and never attended to pleading at alL XIV, At last historiaas arose also among the philosophers ] first Xenophon, the follower of Socrates, and afterwards Ualli- sthenes, the pupil of Aristotle and companion of Alexander. The latter wrote in an almost rhetorical manner; the former used a milder strain of language, which has not the anima- tion of oratory, hut, though perhaps less energetic, ia seems to me, much more pleasing. Timteus, the last these, but, as £ir as I can judge, by far the most leanw and abounding most with richness of matter and variety thought, and not unpolished in style, brought a large store eloquence tp this kind of writing, but no experience in pli ing causes.'* When Ahtonius had spoken thus, " What is this, Catulua' said Ciesar. "Where are theywhosay that Antonius is igno- rant of Greek i how many historians has he named I and how learnedly and judiciously has he spoken of each! " " On my word," said Catulns, " while I wonder at this, I cease to won- der at what I regarded with much greater wonder before, namely, that he, being unacquainted with these matters,' should have such power as a. speaker." " But, Catulus," said Aiitonius," my custom is to read these books, and some others, when I have leisure, not to hunt for anything that maj^ improve me in speaking, but for my own umasement, WI profit is there from it theni I own that there is not muohi yet there is some: for as, when I walk in the sun, thouj^- I may walk for another purpose, yet it naturally happens that I gain a deeper colour; so when I have read those hooka attentively at Misenum,^ (for at Kome I have scarcely oppor- tunity to do BO,) I can perceive that my langu^e acquires a complexion,' as it were, from my intercourse with them.'
> Ho is called PaiUliu Th-ucj/dida by Cicero, Ep. ad Q. Fratr. xil. ' A promontory of Campauia, where Antonins had a oountry hooM. ■ * Ruhnkeg, in a note ou Timceus'a Lei. p. IS, expre^eee a anapiclw' ima^- asit.
faiLa lera.
1 ON THE CHARACTER OF 1EE ORATOR. 237 But, that you may not take what I say in too wide a sense, 1 only liiidei^tand such of the Greek writings as their authors wiBhed to be understood by the generality of people. If I ever lall in with the philosophers, deluded by the titles to their ■books, as they generally profess to be written on well-known and plain subjects, as virtue, justice, probity, pleasure, I do not understand a single word of them; so restricted are they to close and esact disputatious. The poets, as spealdug in a different language, I never attempt to touch at all; but amuse myself, as I said, with thoBo who have written history, or their own speEches,' or who have adopted such a style that they seem to wish to bo familiar to us who are not of the deepest erudition. ] XV. But I return to my subject. Do yen see how far the study of history is the business of the orator? I know not whether it is not his most important business, for flow and variety of diction; yet I do not find it any- where treated separately under the rules of the rhetoricians. Indeed, all rules respecting it are obvious to eommon view; for who is ignorant that it is the firat law in writiug history, that the historian must not dare to tell any falsehood, and the nest, that he must bo bold enough to tell tho whole truth? Also, that there must be no suspioion of partiality in his writiogB, or of personal animosity! These fundamental rules are doubtless universally known. The superstruoture depends on facts and style. The course of facts requires atten- tion to order of time, and descriptions of countries; and since, in great affairs, and such as are worthy of remembrance, firat the designs, then the actions, and afterwards the results, are expected, it demands also that it should he shown, in regard to the designs, what the writer approves, and that it should be told, in regard to the actions, not only what was done or said, but in what manner; and when the result is stated, that all the causes contributing to it should he set forth, whether ariaiDg from accident, wisdom, or temerity; and of the eha- ractfira concerned, not only their acts, but, at least of those that Cicero, when he wrote thie, waa thinking of a paaaaga in Plato's Letters, Ep. vil p. 718, F. Greenvmvd. OrelUua very judieioualy in- BeitB taciu, the conjecture of Erneati, in his text, inatead of tho old ZEsding cantu, which, though Ellendt retains and attempts to defend it, eanjiot be nmde to give on; Bntiatactoiy aeiise.
' Ciecro means orators. The spoeohes which hLatorlaiiH have written ~ [Vliot given aa their own, but put into the mouthe of others. EUendt.
I CE OOA-TORB ^ OR, eminent in reputation and dignity, the life and manners of each. The sort of language and character of style to be ob- Bervsd must be regular and continuous, flowing with a kind of equable smoothness, without the roughness of judicial pleadings, and the sharp-pointed sentences used at the bar. Concerning all these numerous and important points, there are no rules, do you observe, to be found ia the treatises of- the rhetoricians.
" In the same silence have lain many other duties of the orator; eihortation, consolation, precept, admonition, all of which are suhjecta for the highest eloquence, and yet have no place in those treatises on the art which are in circulation. Under this head, too,, there is an infinite field of matter; for (as CrasBUB observed )usost writers assign to the orator two kinds of subjects OQ which he may speak; the one concerning elated and defined queatiana, such as are. treated in judicial pleadings or political debates, to which he that will may add panegyrics; the other, what all authors term, (though none give any eiplanation,) qTieitions unlimited in their kind, wil^ out tvferenix to time or person. When they speak of this sort of subjects, they do not appear to know the nature and extent of it; for if it is the businesB of an orator to be able to speak on whatever subject is proposed without limiiaiion, he wiU have to speak on the magnitude of the sun, and on the shape of the earth__J nor will be able, when he has undertaken such a task, to refuse to speak on mathematical and musical subjects. In short, for him who professes it to be bis business to speak not only on those questions nhich are confined to certain times and persons, (that is, on all judicial questions,) but also on such as are unlimited in their kinds, there oan he no subject for oratory to which be can take esception.
XVI. " But if we are disposed to assign to the orator that sort of questions, also, which are undefiiied, unsettled, and of extreme latitude, so as to suppose that he must speak of good and evil, of things to be desired or avoided, honourable or dishonourable, profitable or unprofitable; of virtue, justice, temperance, prudence, magnanimity, liberality, piety, friend- ship, fidelity, duty, and of other virtues ond their opposita Tices, as well as on state affairs, on goveniment, on military , matters, on civil polity, on morality; let us take upon ua that Bort of subjecits also, but so that it be circumBcribed by OS THS: OBAmOTEB OF TEE OIUTOR. 339 derate limits. I tbink, indeed, that all matters relative to intercourse between fellow-oitizena, and the tranBaotiona of mankind in general, every thing that ooncems habits of life, administration of public afiairs, civil society, the eommon sense of mankind, the law of na.ture, and moral duties, falls within the province of an orator, if not to such an estent that ha may answer on every subject separately, like the philoaopiiers, yet so at least that he may interweave them judiciously into his pleadings; and may speak upon such topics as those who estabhshed laws, statutes, and oommon- w^ths, have spoken upon them, tiiih simplicity and perspi- cuity, without any atriot order of discusaion, or jejune conten- tion about words. ' That it may not aeem wonderful that no rules on so many topics of such importance are here laid down by me, I give this aa my reason: As, in other arts, when the most difficult parts of each have been taught, other particulars, as being easier, or similar, are not necessary to be taught; for example, in painting, ha who has learned to paint the figure of a man, can paint one of any shape or age without special instruction; and aa there ia no danger that he who excels in painting a lion or a hull, will he unable to succeed in pointing other quadrupeds; (for there ia indeed^ no art whatever, in which everything capable of being effected by it ia taught by the master; but they who have learned the general principles regarding the chief and fixed points, accomplish the rest of themselves without any trouble;) so I conceive that ia oratory, whether it be an art, or an attain- ment from practice only,he who has acquired such ability, that he can, at his pleasure, influence the uuderatandiugs of those who listen to him with some power of deciding, on questions concerning public matters, or his own private afiairs, or con- cerning those for or against whom ha speaks, will, on every; other kind of oratorical subject, be no more at a loaa what to ' Bay than tha Emioua Polycletus, when he formed his HerculHi, was at a loss how to execute the lion's skin, or the hydra, al- though he had never been taught to form them separately." ■ XVII. Catulns then observed, *' You seem to me, Anto- nius, to have set clearly before us what he who designs to be an orator ought to learn, and what he may assume from. ttat which he has learned without particular iuatruction; ft)r you have reduced his whole buaineas to two kinds of h DB OttATOHE; OK, catiaes only, and have left particulars, which are innumerable, to practice' and comparison. ISut take care lest the hydra and lion's skin bo included in those two kinds, and the Hercules, and other greater works be left among the mattera ■which you omitj For it does not eeem to me to be leas diffi- cult to speak on the naturo of things in general, than on the cauGOB of particular persons, and it eeema even much more dif&cillt to discourse on the nature of the gods, than on mat- ters that ore litigated amongst men." " It is not so," replied Antonius; "for to you, Catnlua, I will speak, not so much like a person of lenming, as, what is more, one of experienoe. To apeak on nil other subjects is, believe me, mere play to a mau who does not want parts or practice, and is not desti- tuto of common literature or polite instruction; but, in con- tested causes, the business is of gi-eat difficulty; I know not whether it be not the greatest by far of all human efforts, where the abilities of the orator ai'e, by the unleftrncd, esti- roftted according to the result and success; where an adver- sary presents himself armed at all points, who is to be at once attacked and repelled; where he, who is to decide the question, is avorae, or offended, or even friendly to yoni' adversary, and hostile to yourself; when he is either to bo instructed or undeceived, restrained or incited, or managed in every way, by force of ailment, according to the cause and occasion j when his benevolence is often to be turned to hostEity, and hia hostility to benevolence; when he is to be Tnoved, as by some machinery, to severity or to indulgence, to Borrow or to merriment, — you must exert your whole power of thought, and your whole force of language; with which must be joined a delivery varied, enei^tic, full of life, full of spirit, full of feeling, full of nature. If anyone, in such efforts as these, shall have mastered tho art to such a degree, that, like Phidias, he can make a statue of Minerva, he will, like that great artist, find no difficulty in learning how to esecuto the smaller figures upon the shield."
XVIII. "The greater and more wonderful you repre- sent such performances," said Catulus, "the greater longing me to know by what methods or precepts Euch oratory may bo acquired; not that it any longer ])erBonally, (for my!^e does not stand in need of sed to pursue n different plan of speaking, as w*' power 1 .concerns n it, and v 8 WStj never extorted deciaious from the judges by force of elo- quence, but rather received them from their hauds, after coiiciliatitig their goodwill only so far aa they themselves would permit,) yet I wish to learn your thoughts, not for any advantage to myself, os I say, but from a. desire for know- ledge. Nor have I occasion for any Greeit master to repeat his hackneyed precepts, when he himself never saw the forum, or waa present at a trial; prcsuinptioa similar to what is told of Phormio the peripatetic; for when H&nuibal, driven from Carthage, came to Ephesus aa an exile to seek the pro- tection of AntiocbuB, and, oa hia name was held in great honour among all men, waa invited by those who entertained him to hear the philosopher whom I mentioned, if he were inclined; and when he had signified that he was not unwilling, that copious apeaker ia said to have harangued eome hours upon the duties of a general, and the whole military art; and when the rest of the audience, who were extremely delighted, inquired of Hanaibal what he thought of the phi- losopher, the Carthaginian is reported to have answered, not in very good Greek, but with very good sense, that 'he had seen many doting old men, hut had never aeeti any one deeper in hifi dotage than Phormio,' Nor did he say bo, indeed, without reason; for what could have been a greater proof of arro- gance, or impertrinent loquacity, than for a Greek, who had never seen an enemy or a camp, or had the least concern in any public employment, to deliver instmctions on the n[iihtary art to Hannibal, who had contended so many years for empire with the Romans, the conquerors of all nations t Jp this manner all those seem to mo to act, who give rules on the art of speaking; for they teach others liiat of whioli they have no experience themselves. But they are perhaps leas in error in this respect, that they do not attempt to instrvict you, CatuluB, as he did Hannibal, but boya only, or youtha.'ii XIX, "You are wrong, Catulus," said Antonins, "for I myself have met with many Phormios. Who, indeed, is there among, those tiretka that seems to think any of ua un- derstand anything t To me, however, they are not so very Ixoublesome; I easily bear with and endure them all; for they either produce something which diverts me, or make me repent less of not haviag learned from them. I dismiss them less contumcliously than Hannibal dismissed the philo- HE ottATORB; on, aopher. and on tbat account, perhaps, have more trouble witli them;{jaut certainly all their teaching, as far as I can judge, is eitramely ridiculous. For they diyide the whole matter of oratory into two parte; the controversy about thft_oauae ___ansLab.out-fee qiie3tion;__ The cause they call the matter relating to the dispute or litigation affecting the persons con- oemed; ^ the question, a matter of inflstte doubt. Kespecting the cauae they give eome precepts; on the other part of pleading they are wonderfully silent. They then make five parte, aa it were, of oratory; to invent what you are to say, to arrange what you have invented, to clothe it in proper laoguage, then to commit it to memory, and at last to deliver it with duo action and elocution; n task,' iBurely, requiring no very abstruse study. For who would not understand without assistance, that nobody can make a speech imless he has settled what to say, and in what words, and in what order, and remembers it? Not that I find any feult with these rulea, but I say that they are obvious to all; as are likewise those four, five, six, or even seven partitions, (since they are diffirently divided by difierent teachers,) into which every oration is by them distributed; for they bid ua adopt audi an exordium as to make the hearer favourable to us, and willing to bo informed and attentive; then to state our ease in such a manner, that the detail maybe probable, clear, and concise; next, to divide or propound the question; to confirm what makes for us by alignments and reasoning, and refute what makes for the adversary; after this some place the conclufflon of the speech, and peromtion as it were; others direct you, before you come to the peroration, to make a digressioa by way of embelliahmect or amplification, then to sum np and conclude. Nor do I altogether condemn these divisions; for they aro made with some nicety, though with- out sufficient judgment, as must of necessity be the case with men who had do esperience in real pleading, For the precepts which they confine to the exordium and statement of feota are to be observed through the whole speech; since 1 can more easily make a judge tavonrable to me in the pro- grees of my speech, than when no part of the c: i CHARACTBH OF IHE OHATQR.
teard; and desirous of information, not wheE I promise that, I will prove something, but when I actually prove and ' esplain; and I can beat make him attentive, not by the first statement, but by working on his mind through the whole <»urse of the pleading. Ah to their direction that the state- meat of (aots should be probable, and clear, and concise, they direct rightly; but ia Buppoaing that these qualities be- long more peculiarly to tie statement of &cts than to the whole of the speech, they seem to me to be greatly in error; and their whole mistake lies assuredly in thia, that they think oratory an art or science, not unlike other sciences, such as Ciassus said yesterday might be formed from the civil law itself; BO that the general heads of the subject must first be enumerated, when it is a fault if any head be omitted; next, the particulars under each general head, when it is a £iu1t if any particular be either deficient or redundant; then the definitions of all the terms, in which there ought to be nothing either wanting or superfluous^ XX. " But if the more learned can attain this exactness in the civil law, as well as in other studies of a small or moderate extent, the samo cannot, I think, be done in an afikir of this oompass and magnitude. If, however, any are of opinion that it can be done, they must be introduced to those who profess to teach these things as a science; they will find everything ready set forth and complete; for there are books without number on these Bubjecta, neither concealed nor obscure. Bat let them consider what they mean to do; whether they will take up arms for sport or for real warfiirc; for with us a regular engagement and field of battle require one thing, the parade and sohooi of eseroiae another. Yet preparatory exercise in arms is of some use both to the gladi- ator and the soldier; hut it is a bold and ready mind, acute and quick at expedieats, that renders men invincible, and certJunly not less effectively if art be united with it.