=175. Oratory Very Fashionable.=--Oratory seems the keystone to success. True, the fall of the Republic makes it impossible to harangue the assembled Comitia in behalf of favorite candidates or proposed laws. Even in the Senate there are now grave limitations upon free eloquence. Nevertheless, the desirability of “fame” as an orator seems incalculable. To win your cause in the courts; to make a crowded hall resound with applause at your set orations seems the height of peaceful triumph. Never will another age set more store on high-soaring formal _talk_ than this age of the Roman Empire. The actual performances of professional orators and “readers” we can glance at later, and, of course, space lacks for any presentation of the “Science of Eloquence”; but mention must be made of the rhetoric schools in which by ardent anticipation young Titus and Decimus Calvus are already winning laurels. =176. Professional Rhetoricians.=--No slave or ordinary grammarian can hope to conduct a rhetoric school. The masters are either Romans of such rank that they can mingle with senators, or are distinguished Greeks fresh from the schools of Rhodes or Athens.[108] Not many years ago in Trajan’s reign, a certain Isæus came to Rome from Greece. He dazzled the noblest circles by his proficiency; his diction was the purest Attic; his sentences sparkled with epigrams. He called on his audience to name any mooted subjects it liked for discussion and to state on which side it wanted him to argue. Instantly he would rise, wrap his gown around him and “without losing a moment, begin, with everything at his finger tips no matter what subject was selected.” Presumably his thoughts and the information behind them were very superficial; no matter, the flow of his logic, learning, and language set his audience into ecstasies. Calvus only hopes he can find an equally distinguished master for his own sons. =177. Methods in Rhetoric Schools: Mock Trials.=--Rhetoric schools are arranged rather as halls of audience than as ordinary classrooms. The students are expected to sit in a proper manner, “to look steadily at the speaker, not let their minds wander or to whisper to their neighbors, yawn sleepily, smile, scowl, cross their legs, or let their heads drop.” The training in its earlier stages, however, seems decidedly academic. Great models in Greek and Latin oratory are examined and discussed. Then the young advocates-to-be are put to work preparing their own orations. They are not, however, allowed to take any live and fresh topic. Instead they must seek one in distant history.