incline to think, of a provincial, perhaps a Spaniard, who was well read in the older literature of Rome, but could not seize the complex and delicate idiom of the _beau monde_ of his day. With vulgarisms like _bene magni, in opere distenti_, [35] and inaccuracies like _ad ignoscendum_ for _ad se excusandum_, [36] _quam opimam_ for _quam optimam_, [37] he combines quotations from Ennius, _e.g. hic pes pede premitur, armis teruntur arma_, [38] and rhetorical constructions, _e.g. alteri alteris non solum mortem morti exaggerabant, sed tumulos tumulis exaequabant_. [39] He quotes the words of Caesar in a form of which we can hardly believe the dictator to have been guilty: "_Caesar gives conditions: he never receives them_:" [40] and again, "_I am Caesar: I keep my faith_." [41] Points like these, to which we may add his fondness for dwelling on horrid details [42] (always omitted by Caesar), and for showy descriptions, as that of the single combat between Turpio and Niger, [43] seem to mark him out as in mind if not in race a Spaniard. These are the very features we find recurring in Lucan and Seneca, which, joined to undoubted talent, brought a most pernicious element into the Latin style. To us Caesar's literary power is shown in the sphere of history. But to his contemporaries he was even more distinguished in other fields. As an orator he was second, and only second, to Cicero. [44] His vigorous sense, close argument, brilliant wit, and perfect command of language, made him, from his first appearance as accuser of Dolabella at the age of 22, one of the foremost orators of Rome. And he possessed also, though he kept in check, that greatest weapon of eloquence, the power to stir the passions. But with him eloquence was a means, not an end. He spoke to gain his point, not to acquire fame; and thus thought less of enriching than of enforcing his arguments. One ornament of speech, however, he pursued with the greatest zeal, namely, good taste and refinement; [45] and in this, according to Cicero, he stood above all his rivals. Unhappily, not a single speech remains; only a few characteristics fragments, from which we can but feel the more how much we have lost. [46]