favour for rei, or defendanta, a term by whioli I designate not only Buoh db are accused, but all persona about whose affiiirs there is any litigation; for in that sense people formerly used the ivord. To describe tlie character of your clients in your Bpeechea, therefore, as just, full of integrity, religious, unpresuming, and patient of injuries, has an eitraordinary eS'eot; and sucli a deacription, either in the commencement, or in youT Btatemeut of facts, or iu the peroration, has eo mueli inlluonce, if it ia agreeably and Judiciously managed, that it often prevails more than the merits of the cause. SudS7 influence, indeed, is produced by a cei-tain feeling and art in! [ speaking, that the speech seems to represent, as it nere, the ' I character of the speaker; for, by adopting a peculiar mode of i thought and expression, united with action that is gentle and, I indicutive of amiableuess, suoii an effect is produced, tliat the/ ] speaker seems to be a man of probity, integrity, and virtue. ' XLIV. " To this mode of epeiJcing we may euhjoiu the opposite method, which moves the minds of the judges by Tery dilTereiit means, and impels them to bate, or love, or ef^y, or benevolence, or fear, or hope, or desire, or abborreuoe, or joy, or grief, or pity, or severity; or leads them to whatever feelings resemble and are allied to those and similar emotions of mind. It is desirable, too, for the orator, that tiie judges may voluntarily bring to the hearing of the cause some feelings in their breasts favourable to tlie object of the speaker. For it is easier, as they say, to increase the speed of bim tfaat is already running, than to excite to motion Lim that is torpid. But if such shall not be the casp, or be BOmewhat doubtful, then, as a careful physician, before he proceeds to administer any medicine to a patient, must aob only uudorstaud the disease of him whom he would cure, but also his habit and constitution of body wbeninbeaUlij so I, for my part, when 1 undertake a cause of such doubt and importance as is likely to escite the feelings of the judgM, employ nil my sagacity on the care and consideration of aacartuiuiug, as skilfully as I can, what their seutimoitts and opiuioua are, what they espect, to which side they incline, and to what conclusion they are likely to be led, with the least difficulty, by the force of oratory. If they yield them- selves up, and, as I said before, voluntarily ioclino and pre- ponderate to the side to which I would impel them, I embraos, CUI, X CUIU£iU3iy ^ OK THE CHAHACfTEH OP THE OEATOH.
what ia offered, aud turn my Fails to that quarter from whence auy breath of wicd is perceived to blow. But if the judge is unbiassed, and free from all pnssion, it is a work of greater difficulty; for every feeling must then be moved by the power of oratory, without any aaaiatance from nature. But BO great are the powers of that which was riglitly termed by a good poet,' Indinei of the Boul, and queen of all tbings, Eloquenco, that it can not only make him upright who ia biassed, or bias him who ia steadfast, but can, like an able and resolute commander, lead even him captive who resists and opposes.
■ XLV. " These arc the points about which Craaaus just now jocosely questioned me wheu ho said that I treated them divinely, and praised what I did, as being meritoriously done, in the causes of Manius Aquilius,^ Cains Norbauus,' and Bomo others; but really, Crassus, when such arts are adopted by you in pleading, I use to feel terrified; such power of mind, such impetuosity, auch passion, is expressed in your eyes, your countfinauce, your gesture, aud even in your very finger;* auch a torrent is there of the most emphatic and best chosen words, such noblo thoughts, so just, so new, so free from all disguise or puerilo ombcUishmeut, that you seem not only to me to firo the judge, but to be yourself on fire. Nor ia it possible that the judge should feel couceru, or hate, cr >uvy, or fear in any degree, or that be should be moved to com- pasaion and tears, unless all those sensations which the orator would awaken in the judge shall appear to be deeply felt and experienced by the orator himself For if a coun- terfeit passion were to be assumed, and if there were notliing, in a speech of that kind, but what was false and simulated, Btill greater art would perhaps be necessary. What is the case with you, however, Crassus, or with others, I do not know; as to myself, there is no reason why I should say what ia false to men of your great good sense and fneudahip * FacuriuB in his Hermioiie, aa appears from NonIaE'v.,^exiininut, Tlie tbaught ia borrowed front Eoripides, Heo. 816. Ellendt.
> See note ou c 23. 'See aote on c. 47.
* The forefinger, whiuh CrasauB is said to have painted witll won- derful e9ei;t. See Quintilian, xL 3, Vi, SE obatore; OB, dug before ■' ^ for me, — I never yet, upon my honour, tried to excite » or cempaesion, or envy, or hatred, 'wheu speaking be. court of judicature, but I myself in rousing the judges, w affected with tbe very eame sensatioDs that I wished to produce in them. For it ia not easy to cause the judge to be angry with him with whom you desire him to be angry, if you yourself appear to take the matter coolly; or to mate him bate him whom you wish him to hate, unless he first see you burning witb hatred; nor will he he moved to pity, unless you give bim plain indications of your own acuta feelings, by your expresBions, sentiments, tone of voice, look, and iinally by sympathetic tears; for as no fuel is so oom- buatiblo as to kindle without the application of fire, so no disposition of mind is so susceptible of the impressions of the orator as to be animated to atroug feeling, unless he himself approach it full of inflammation and ardour.
XL VI. " And that it may not appear to you eitraordinaiy and afitouifihing, that a ma.ii should so often be angry, so often grieve, and be so oftea esoitod by every paseion of the, mind, especially in other men's concerns, there is such foroe, I let me assure you, in those thoughts and aentiments whioh 1 you apply, handle, and discuss in speaking, that there is do occasion for simulation or deceit; for the very nature of ttie! language which is adopted to move the passions of others, \ moves tbe orator liimaclf in a greater degree than any one of \ those who listen to him. That we may not be surprised, too, that this happens in causes, in criminal trials, in the danger of our friends, and before a multitude in the city and in the forum, where not only our reputation for ability ia at stake, (for that might be a slight consideratioa; al- though, when you have professed to accompiish what few, can do, it is not wholly to be neglected;) but where other things of greater importance are concerned, fidelity, duty to our clients, and earnestness in discharging that duty; we are ho much moved by such considerations, that even while we de&nd the merest straegers, we cannot regard them as strangerH, if we wish to be thought honest man ourselves.
But, as I said, that this may not appear surprising in wa, what can be more fictitious than poetry, than theatrictd representations, than the argument of a play? Yet on the stage I myself have often observed the eyes of the actoTB THE CHARACTER or THE ORATOK.
through, his mask appear inSamed with fury, while be was repeatiug these Teraes,"^ IlaTB you, then, dacod {;□ aDparate him from jroo. Or enter Salamia without your hrotlier f And dreaded not yoor father's counteiiAnce?
He never uttered the word 'countenance' but Telamon seemed to me to be distracted with rage aod grief for hia son. And how, lowering Lie voice to a tone of sorrow, did he appear to weep and bewail, as he esdaimed, ^^Ba i Whom ohildleaa now in the decline of life Yoa have affliuted, and bereaved, and killed i Eegardlera of your brotheir'a death, regardieafl Of hia young son ectrnated to your keeping!
if even the player who pronounced these verses eveiy day, could not yet pronounce them efficiently without a feel- ing of real grie^ can you suppose that Pacuvins, when he wrote them, wna in a cool and tranquil state of mind) Such, could not be the case; for I have o^cn. heard that no man con be a good poet (us they say is left recorded in the writings of both Demociitus and Plato) without ardour of imaginai- tion, and the excitement of something similar to frenzy.
XLVII. '■ Do not therefore imagine that I, who had no denre to imitate or represent the calamities or fictitious sor- rows of the heroes of antiquity in my speech, and was no actor of a foreign and personated part, but a supporter of my own, when Maniua Aquilius, by my efforts, was to be main- tained in his rights as a citizen, did tliat which I did in the peroration of that cause, without a strong feeling. For whea I saw him whom I remembered to have been consul, and, as a general honoured by the senate, to have inarched up to the Capitol with the pomp of an ovation, afflicted, dejected, sor- rowful, reduced to the last extremity of danger, I no sooner attempted to excite compassion in others, tlian I was myself moved with compassion. I observed, indeed, that tSie judges were wonderfiilly moved, when I brought forward the sor- rowful old man habited in mourning, and did what you, ' Spondalia. For thia word I hive given " Terses." " That it is coiTupt," BBjsEllendt, " all the commentatorB agree." HemuuD. Opuaa. i. p. &0i, ooqjecturcB i ipimdd Hid, " from that couob," on whiah ba Bupposea Telamon muy have been recliniug.
I DE OR4T0EB; OB, I DE OR4T0EB; OB, Craaaus, commesd, not witli art (of nhich I know not whaft:!! to Bay), but with, great coucem and emotion of mind, so that: I 1 tore open his garment and showed hia scars; when Caius Marius, who woB present and sat bj, haightened the sutTow espressed in my speech by his tears j and when I, frequently caUing upoa him, recommended his uoUeague to his pro- tection, &ad iavoked bim as an advocate to defend the commoa fortune of commanders. This excitement of com- passion, this adjuration of all gods and men, of citizeDS and allies, was not unaccompanied by my tears and extreme com- miseration on my part; and if, from all the expressions which 1 then used, real concern of my own had been absent, my speech would not only have failed to excite com- miaeratioQ, but would have even deserved ridicula I, there- fore, instruct you in these particulars, Sulpicius, I that am, forsooth, so skilful and so learned a master, showing you how, in speaking, you may be angry, and Borrowful, and "Though why, indeed, should 1 teach you this, who, in accusing my quaistor and companion in office,^ raised so fierce a flame, not only by your speech, but much more by yout vehemence, passion, and fiery spirit, that I could scarce ven- ture to approach to extinguish iti For you had in that oause everything in your iavour; you brought before the judges violence, flight, pelting with stones, the cruel exercise of the tribunitian power in the grievous and miserabl calamity of Ctepioj it also appeared that Marcus ^miliM the first man, not only in tho senate, but in the city, h been stmck with one of the stones; and nobody could c' that Lucius Cotta and Titua Didiua, whon they would ha<d ' Quintue Servilius Crcpio, in Mb consulship, snyB Henriohaen, b embaejled n hige, portion of the gold taken at tbe eaptura ot Toulona A.D.o. 648. In the following yenr, when, through the diaagreemeDt K tneen bim and the coubuI Manlitia, the Komans were defeated in itC' battles by the Cimbri, hie proparty was conflaoated, and hia con taken from him. Seme jEara afterwards, a.U.Q. 659, when Crasaus u, Scffivola were conaula, Caiua Horbanua, then tribune of the peopk brought CECpio to trial, as it appears, for the embezzlement of the gol at Toulouse, and for eKciting sedition in the city. The senate, to whom Ctepio, In his consalBhip, bad tried to restore the judicial power, eisTted tiiainselTes strungl; ill nis behalf; but Norbanus, after exciting a great tmaolt, (tarried his point by force, and Cc^io went into baniilhmeat «l J ON THE CHAOACTEB OP THE ORATOK.
jntorposed their negative upon tlio passing of the law, had been drivea in a tumiiltuous manner from the tempie.
XLVIII. There wna also this circnmstonce in your favour, that you, being merely a youth, were thought to make these complaints on behalf of the commonwealth with the utmost propriety; I, a man of censorian rank, was thought hardly in a condition to appear with any honour in defence of a sedi- tions citizen, a man who had been unrelenting at the calamity of a consular person. The judges were citizens of the highest character; the forum was crowded with respectable people, HO that scarcely even a slight excuse was allowed me, although I was to speak in defence of oue who had been my quiestor. In these circumstances why need I saj that I had recourse to some degree of art? I will state how I acted, and, if you please, you may place my defence under some head of art. I noticed, iu connexion, the natures, ill effects, and dangers of every kind of sedition. I brought down my discourse on that subject through all the changes of circumstances in our commonwealth; and I concluded by observing, that though all seditious had ever been attended with troubles, yet that soma had been supported by justice, and almost by neceaaity. I then dwelt on tliose topics which Crassus just now men- tioned, that neither could kings have been expelled frojn this city, nor tribunes of the people have been created, nor the consular power have been so often diminished by votes of the commonalty, nor the right of appeal, that patroness of the state and guardian of our liberty, have been granted to the Eoman people, without disagreament with the nobility; and if those seditions had been of advantage to the repubhc, it should not immediately, if auy commotion had been raised umong the people, be laid to the charge of Caius Norbanus as a heinous crime or capital misdemeanour; but that, if it had ever been allowed to the people of Rome to appear justly provoked (and I showed that it had been often allowed), no occasion was ever more just than that of which I was speaking. I then gave another turn to my speech, and directed it to the condemnation of Cfepio's flight, and lamentation for the loss of the army. By this diversion I made the grief of those to flow afresh who were mourning for their friends, and re-excited the minds of the Eoman knights before whom, as judges, the cause was being pleaded, to hatred towards Quiutua i TM obitoub: Cffipio, fi-om whom they were alienated on account c right of judicature. ^ XLIX. "But as soon as I perceived that I was in posses- sion of the favour of the court, and that I had secured ground for defence, because I bad both conciliated the good feeling of the people, whose rights I had maintained even in. conjunction with sedition, and hod brought over the whole feeling of the judges to our side of the question, either iinm their concern for the calaaiity of the public, or from grief or regret for their relations, or from their own individual aver- sion to Ccepio, I then began to intermix with this vehement , and ardent style of oratory that other species of which I discoursed before, full of lenity and mildness; saying that I was contending for my companion in office, who, according to the custom of our anceetors, ought to stand in relation to me as one of my children, and for almost my whole reputa- tion and fortunes; that nothing could pos^bly happen more dishonourable to my character, or more bitterly adapted to give pain to me, than if I, who was reputed to have been oftentimes the preservation of those who were entire strangers to me, but yet my fellow-cltizens, should not b© able to assist an officer of my own. I requested of tho judges to make this concession to my age, to the honouis which I hod attained, to the actions which I had performed, if they saw that I was affected with a just and tender sorrow, and especially if they were sensible that in other causes I had asked everything for my friends in peril, but never any- thing for myself. Thus, in the whole of that defence and cause, the part which seemed to depend on art, the speaking on the Apuleian law, and esplaining what it was to commit treason, I akirmned and touched upon as briefly aa possible. But by the aid of these two parta of eloquence, to one of which belongs the excitement of the passions, to the other recommendation to favour, (parts not at all fully treated in the rules in books on the art,) was the whole of that cause conducted by me; so that, in reviving the popular displea- sure against Ctepio, I appeared to be a parson of the keenest acrimony; and, in spwiking of my behaviour towards my friends, to be of the most humane disposition. In tlm out of the liands of the knights, ai UiAOTBB OP THE OEA.TOK.
mamier, rather by exciting the pasaiona of the j by informing their uuderatanilinga, waa your accusation, SulpioiuB, at that time overthrown by me."
L. " In. good truth, Antonius," interposed Sulpioiua, " you recall these circunastancea to my memory with justice; sinOB I never saw anything ahp out of any person's handa, as that cause then alipped out of mine. Tor whereas, aa yoa ob- served, I had given you not a cause to plead, but a flame to extinguish; what a commencement was it {immortal gods!) that you made! What timidity was there! What distrust E What a degree of hesitation and slowness of speech! But as Boon as yon had gained that by your exordium, which was the only thing that the assembly allowed you as an excuse, namely, that you were pleadiag for a man intimately con- neoted with you, and your own qnwstor, how quickly did you secure your way to a feir audience! But Jo! when I thought that you had reaped no other benefit than that the hearers would think they ought to excuse you for defending a pemioioiis citizen, on account of the ties of union betwixt you, you began to proceed gradually and tacitly, while othera had as yet no suBpiclou of your designs, though I myself felt some apprehension, to maintaiu in your defence that what had happened waa not sedition in NorbanuB, but resentment on the part of the Roman people, resentment not excited unjustly, but deservedly, and in conformity with their duty.
In the nest place, what argument did you omit against Cmpio! How did you confound all the circumstances of the case by allusions to hatred, ill-will, and compassion? Nor waa this the case only in your defence, but even in iregaxd to Scaurus and my other witnesses, whose evidence you did not confute by disproving it, but by having recourse to the same impetuosity of the people. When those circum- stances were mentioned by you just now, I felt no desire for any rules of instruction; for the very demonstration of your methods of defence, as stated by yourself, I regard as no ordinary instruction," " But if you are so disposed," said Antonius, "I wiU tell you what maxims I adopt in speaking, and what I keep principally in view; for a long life and experience in important affairs have taught me to discern by 'i^Ett means the minds of men are to bo moved.
" The first thing I generally consider is, whether ttiti I I DB OBATOBB; OB, cause requires that the minds of the audience ahould be excited; for eucli fiery oratory is not to be exerted on trivial subjects, nor when tlie minds of men are so affected that we can do nothing by eloquence to influence their opinions, lest we be tLought to deserve ridicule or dialilie, if we either act tragedies iibout trifles or endeavour to pluck up what be moved. For as the feeliugs on which we have to work ia' the minds of the judges, or whoever they may be befo whom, we may plead, are iove, hatred, anffer, envy, piiy, Joy, fear, aiixidy, ive are sensible that love may be gained you seem to advocate what is advanti^ous to the persona before whom you are speaking; or if you appear to exert yourself in behalf of good men, or at Jeast for sueh as are good and serviceable to them; for the latter case mare en- gages favour, the former, the defence of virtue, esteem; and if a hope of future advantage is proposed, it has a greater efiect than the meution of past benefits. You must endea- vour to show that in the cause which you defend, either their dignity or advantage ja concerned; and you shi Bignify that he for whom yoa solicit their love has referrt nothing to his own private benefit, and done uoihing at for his own sate; for dislike ia felt for the selfish gains of' individuals, while favour is shown to their desires to servs others. But we must take care, while we are. on tbis topic, not to appear to eittol the merit and glory of those whom we would wish to be esteemed fur their good deeds, too highly, as these qualities are usually the greatest objects of envy. Fi'om. these considerations, too, we shall leoru bow to draw hatred on our adversaries, and to avert it from ourselves and our friends. The same means are to he used, also, either to escit or allay anger; for if you exaggerate every fact that is or disadvant^eous to the audience, their hatred is excilfld|_ but if anything of the kind is thrown out against men c^ worth, or against characters oa whom no one ought to cast any. reflection, or i^iast the public, there ia then produced, if not so violent a degree of hatred, at least an unfavourable feeling, or displeaflure near akin to hatred. Fear is also inculoatfld either from people's own dangers or those of the pnbli soual fear affects men more deeply; but that which is c to all is to be treated by the orator as having similar influence.*] ' Sines publia or caimnau fear must oSbut individuals.
IBX CHABAOTEK OF THE ORATOO.
LII. " Similar, or rather the same, is the case with regard to iwpe, joy, and anxiety; but I know not whether the feeling oienvy is not by for the most violent of all emotions; nordoea it require less power to Huppress than to excite it. Men envy chiefly their equals or inferiors when they perceive them- selves left behind, and are mortified that the others have outstripped them; but there is often a strong unfavourable feeling towards superiors, which is the stronger if they are intolerably arrogant, and transgress the fair bounds of com- iQon justice through super-eminence in dignity or fortune. -If Buch advantages ai-eto be made instruments to kindle dishke,^ the chief thing to he said is, ' tliat they are not the acquMtioua of virtue, that they have even been gained perhaps by vica and crime; and that, however honourable or imposing they may appear, no merit was ever carried so high as the insolence of mankind and their ooatumelious disdain.' To allay envy, it may be observed, ' that such advant^es have been gained by extreme toil and imminent perils; tliat they have not been applied to the individual's own private benefit, but that of others; that ho himself if he appear to have gained any glory, nlthough it might not be an undue reward for danger, was not elated with it, but wholly sot it aeidc and undervalued it;' and Buch an effect must by all means be produced (since most men ore envious, and it is a most common and prevalent vice, and envy is felt towards all super-eminent and flourishing fortune), that the opinion entertained of such characters he lowered, and that then* ibrtunes, so excellent in people's imaginations, may appear mingled with lahou^ and trouble.