Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker. — John Shaqi
Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker.Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Philosophy
Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Oratory -- Early works to 1800
with such uncommon force and dignity, that every part of his Oration
received the applause of his hearers: and so powerfully did he move the
feelings, and affect the pity of the judges, that his clients were
immediately acquitted of the charge, to the satisfaction of the whole
court.
"As, therefore, the two principal qualities required in an Orator, are to
be neat and clear in stating the nature of his subject, and warm and
forcible in moving the passions; and as he who fires and inflames his
audience, will always effect more than he who can barely inform and amuse
them; we may conjecture from the above narrative, which I was favoured
with by Rutilius, that Laelius was most admired for his elegance, and
Galba for his pathetic force. But this force of his was most remarkably
exerted, when, having in his Praetorship put to death some Lusitanians,
contrary (it was believed) to his previous and express engagement;--T.
Libo the Tribune exasperated the people against him, and preferred a bill
which was to operate against his conduct as a subsequent law. M. Cato (as
I have before mentioned) though extremely old, spoke in support of the
bill with great vehemence; which Speech he inserted in his Book of
_Antiquities_, a few days, or at most only a month or two, before his
death. On this occasion, Galba refusing to plead to the charge, and
submitting his fate to the generosity of the people, recommended his
children to their protection, with tears in his eyes; and particularly his
young ward the son of C. Gallus Sulpicius his deceased friend, whose
orphan state and piercing cries, which were the more regarded for the sake
of his illustrious father, excited their pity in a wonderful manner;--and
thus (as Cato informs us in his History) he escaped the flames which would
otherwise have consumed him, by employing the children to move the
compassion of the people. I likewise find (what may be easily judged from
his Orations still extant) that his prosecutor Libo was a man of some
Eloquence."
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