selecting words; if any one, besides the orator, is said to form a diaoourse, and to vary and adorn it with certain distinctions, as it were, of words and thoughts; or if any method of argument, or expression of thought, or distribution and arrangement of matter, is taught, except by this one art, let us confess that either that, of which this art makes profession, is foreign, to it, or possessed in common with some other art. But if such method and teaching be confined to this alone, it is not, though professors of other arts may have spoken well, the less on that account the proparty of this art; but as an orator can speak heat of all men on subjects that belong to other arts, if be makes himself acquainted with them, (as Crassua observed yesterday,) so tho professors of other arts speak more eloquently on their own subjects, if they have acquired any instruction from this art; ibr if any person vei'sed in agriculture has spoken or written) J ^w OS IKE CHAEtACTER OF THE OBATOG. 231 irith eloquence oa rural afiairs, or a physioian, as many have done, on disesBes, or a painter upon painting, bia eloquence is not on that account to be considered as belonging to anj of those arta; although in eloquence, indeed, such is the force of human genius, maoj moa of eveiy class and profession'-attain some proficiency even without instruction; but though you may judge what is peculiar to each art, when you have observed what they severally teach, yet nothing can be more certain than that all other arte can discbarge their duties without eloquence, but that an orator cannot even aoquire his name without it; so that other men, if they are eloquent, borrow something from him; while he, if ho is not supplied from his own storey cannot obtain the power of speaking fitim any other art/U X. CatuluB then said, " Although, Antouius, the course of your remarks ought by no means to Ijo retarded by interruption, yet you will bear with me and grant me pardon; Jhr I cannot help crying out, as he in the Trinummus'' aay^ so ably do you seem to me to have described the powers of the orator, and so copiously to have extolled them, db the eloquent man, indeed, must necessarily do; he must extol eloquence beat of all men; for to praise it be baa to employ the very eloquence wbioh he praises. But proceed, for I agree with you, that to speak eloquently is all your own; and that, if any one does ao on any other art, he employs an accomplishment borrowed from something else, not peculiar to him, or his own." " The night," added Crassus, " has made you polite to us, Antonius, and bumauised you; for in yesterday's address to us,* you described the orator as a man that can do only one thing, like a walervuin or a porter, as CsBcilius* says; a fellow void of all learning and politeness." "Wiy yesterday," rejoined Antonius, " I had made it my object, if I refuted you, to fake your scholars from you;^ but now, as Catulus and Ccesar make part of tbo audienoe, 1 think I ought not so much to argue against you, aa to ' The reader will observe that the coDBtructiou in the text Is mmlti onadvm genemm atqae nrlium, sa Elleodt oliiervea, referring to Mrtthiffi, > iii. 2, 7. ' Sea b. L c BS.
' The writBT of Comacliea, Viactrt CacUitu gramlate, Tereniiiu arit, Hor.
I wiabeii to refute you jeeteriij, that I might draw ScBToIa and tm from you. Thia is spoken in jeai Prouil.
I DB ouatore; ob, declare what I myself think. It follows then, that, as tho orator of whom we speak is to be placed in the forum, and iu the view of the public, we must iwnaider what employment we are to give him, aod to what duties we should wish him to he appointed. For CrasauB^ yesterday, when you, C&tutua and Ccesor, were not present, made, iu a few words, the same statement, in regard to the diTision of the art, thnt jnoat of the Greeks have made; not espressing what he himself thought, but what was ssiA by them; that there ore two principal sorts of questions about which eloquence is employed; one indefinite, the other definite. He seemed to me to call that indefinite ia which the subject of inquiry is general, aa, Whtt/ter eloquaice is desii-ahle; wlietker honoTtra shotdd be souglU; and that definite iu. 'which there is an inquiry with respect to particular persons, or any settled and defined point; of which sort ate the questions agitated in the fomm, and in the causes and disputes of private citizens. These appear to me to consist either in judicial pleadings, op. in giving counsel; for that third kind, which was noticed hy CrasEus, and which, I hear, Aristotle^ himself who has fully illustrated these subjeots, added, is, though it be useful, less necessary." "What kind do you meanJ" said Catulus; "is it panegyriol for I observe that that is introduced aa a third kind."
XI. "It ia so," says Antonius; "and as to this kind of oratory, I know that I myself, and all who were present, were extremely delighted when your mother Popilia^ was honoured with a panegyric by you; the first woman, I think, to whom such honour was ever paid in tliin city. But it does not seem to me that all subjects on which we speak are to be included iu art, and made subject to rules; for &om those fountains, whence all the ornaments of speech are drawn, we may also take the ornaments of panegyric, without requiring elementary instruotiona; for who ia ignorant, though no one teach him, what qualities are to be commended in any person) For if we but look to those thing! which Crassus has mentioned, iu the beginning of the speech which he dehvered when censor in opposition to his colleague,* T/iai in those things which are bestowed on viankind h}/ naiure or fortune, he could contentedly allow hivuelf to ba THE CHARACTER OF THE OKATOH. 233 excelled; hut that in whatever tnen could proaire for (A«nxelvet, he could not suffer hijtuelf to be excelled, fce who would procouace the panegyrio of any person, will uiiEerstand that he must expatiate on the blcBsinga of fortune; and these are advaatagea of birth, wealth, relationship, friends, resources, health, beauty, atrength, talent, and eudi other qualities as are either personal, or dependent on circumstances; and, if he possessed these, be must show that he made a proper use of them; if not, that he managed wisely without them; if he lost them, that he bore the loss with resignation; he must then state what he whom he praises did or suffered with wisdom, or with liberahty, or with fortitude, or with justice, or with honour, or with piety, or with gratitude, or with humanity, or, in a word, under the inSueuce of any virtue. These particulars, and whatever others are of simiW kind, he will easily observe who is inclined to praise any person; and he who is inclined to blame him the contrary. ''\ " Why then do you hesitate," said Catulus, "to make this a thiid kind, since it is so in the nature of things! for if it is more easy than others, it is not, on that account, to be excluded from the nucnljur." " ISecause I am unwilling," replied Antonius, "to treat of all that fiJls under the province of an oratoi*, as if nothing, however small it may be, could be uttered without regard to stated ndes. Evidence, for instance, is often to be given, and sometimes with great exoetness, as I was obhged to give mine against Sestus Titius,' a Bpditioua and tiurbuJent member of the commonwealth; when, in delivering my evidence, I explained all the proceedings of my consulate, in which 1, on behalf of the commonwealth, opposed him as tribune of the people, and eiposed all that I thought lie had done contrary to the interest of the state; I was detained long, I listened to much, I answered many objections; but would you therefore wish, when you give precepts on eloquence, to add any instructions oa giving evidence as a portion of the art of oratory? " XII. "ThereiSiindeed," said Catulus, "uonccessity." "Or if (as often happens to the greatest men) communicationB ore to bo delivered, either ia the senate irom a commander in ' A tribnne of the people, i.u.a 865, whom Antonius opposod abont the Agrarian law. Ue ia meotioaed also in c CQ, and appean to be tba same tbat ia aaid to have played vigorously at ball, iL 62, ilL 2a. Ellendt. See alao Cic. Brut, c 02.
I DE obatobh; OB, 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 understand 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 Antipater 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 roughhewed 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, unless 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, 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 Uallisthenes, 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 animation 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 ignorant 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 wonder 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 opportunity 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.
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 anywhere 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 attention 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 eharactfira 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 ofthe 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, friendship, 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 oommonw^ths, have spoken upon them, tiiih simplicity and perspicuity, without any atriot order of discusaion, or jejune contention 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 attainment 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 concerning 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, although he had never been taught to form them separately." ■ XVII. Catulns then observed, *' You seem to me, Antonius, 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 difficult 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 matters 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 destituto of common literature or polite instruction; but, in contested 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, estiroftted according to the result and success; where an adversary 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."