1. Sueton. de grammaticis. - Suringar, historia critica choliastarum lat., Lugd. Bat. 1834 sq. 3 voll. L. Lersch, on the linguistic speculations of the ancients, Bonn 1838-1841. 3 voll. van Heusde, de L. Aelio Stilone (1839) p. 17-33. Gräfenhan, A history of classical philology in ancient times, Bonn 1843 sqq. espec. vol. IV (1850).

2. L. Mercklin, the Isagogic writings of the Romans, Philologus IV p. 413-437. 0. Jahn, On Roman Encyclopaedias, in Ber. der sächs. Ges. d. W. 1850, p. 263 sqq.

3. Collections of the extant writings of the grammatici latini by D. Gothofredus, Geneva 1595. 1622. 4., El. Putsche (Hanover 1605. 4), Fr. Lindemann (Lips. 1831-40. 4. incomplete; only t. III and IV 1), and espec. by H. Keil, Lips. 1857 sqq. Comp. W. Christ in the Philologus XVIII p. 112 sqq.

35. The Romans were naturally well-qualified for eloquence by their acute intellect, love of order and their Italian vivacity, tempered with Roman gravity. The influence of habit and rule, the publicity of all transactions, the numerous occasions where good speaking was required, before the people, the senate, a jury or magistrates, the army or at a funeral, caused fluent speaking to become a necessary requisite in the state, and the possession of eloquence a means to attain political distinction, especially when the privileges of rank disappeared one after the other, and political partystrife became more frequent and ardent. In consequence of this, eloquence took from the beginning a practical direction, and practice in public speaking became an essential part of the education of a young Roman, so much so that Cato the Elder already composed a manual of it, and in several families, as in that of the Scribonii, eloquence became hereditary through several generations. To this must be attributed the large numbers of orators among the Romans, the early commencement of eloquence and the great perfection to which it attained, its rise and decay with the various phases of the political constitution.

1. Cic. off. II 19, 66: huic (eloquentiae) a maioribus nostris est in toga dignitatis principatus datus. Brut. 49, 182: .. in tanta et tam vetere republica, maximis praemiis eloquentiae propositis, omnes cupisse dicere, non plurimos ausos esse, potuisse paucos. Liv. XXXIX 40: ad summos honores alios scientia iuris, alios eloquentia, alios gloria militaris provexit. Quintil. II 16, 8: pop. rom., apud quem summa semper oratoribus dignitas fuit. Tac. dial. 37: .. procerum manum multum in his studiis operae curaeque posuisse nec quemquam illis temporibus magnam potentiam sine aliqua eloquentia consecutum.

2. Cic. de or. II 13, 55: nemo studet eloquentiae nostrorum hominum nisi ut in causis atque in foro eluceat: apud Graccos etc. (eloquence was the purpose by itself). The moral part even suffered by the regard paid to the practical side: the solicitor was scarcely expected to adhere to truth. Cicero's words about Mark Antony (Brut. 207) that he was facilis in causis recipiendis, apply also to himself, and in more than one passage he teaches that for an orator not the verum is the aim, but the verisimile; see de or. II 59, 241. off. II 14, 51. In a similar manner Quintilian II 15, 32. III 8, 13. XII 1, 33 sqq. 112, 5: ubi animis iudicum vis afferenda est et ab ipsa veri contemplatione abducenda mens, ibi proprium oratoris opus est. On the other hand XII 7, 7: non convenit ei quem oratorem esse volumus iniusta tueri scientem; comp. IV 2, 93.

3. They commenced in early youth. Africanus minor says at the age of 18 years in Polyb. XXXII 9: Sozó elvai nãow jovziós ris καὶ πολὺ κεχωρισμένος τῆς ῥωμαϊκῆς αἱρέσεως καὶ πράξεως ὅτι κρίσεις οὐχ αἱροῦμαι λέγειν. Very frequently their début was a speech in praise of a recently departed relative. Even Augustus duodecimum annum agens aviam Iuliam defunctam pro contione laudavit (Suet. Aug. 8). The youthful character of such laudationes funebres was, therefore, perhaps a reason for their rarely being published: E. Hübner in the Hermes I p. 441. It was also very common to commence the career of orator by accusations: see Polyb. XXXII 15 in fin. Cic. Off. II 14, 49. Val. Max. V 4, 4. Quintil. XII 6, 1. Tac. dial. 34 in f. Apulei. apol. 66.

4. The speeches attributed by later historians to the regal period do not, of course, prove anything as to the eloquence of that time; but even then the constitution necessitated a certain amount of political speaking. In the year 870 v. c. Livy (VI 20) lets M. Manlius defend himself pro fastigio rerum oratione etiam magnifica. Meyer's collection from Appius Claudius to Symmachus amounts to 158 orators, without counting those whose speeches were never written down or of whom nothing is at least handed down to this purport.

5. The principal sources are Cicero's Brutus, Seneca the rhetor, Tacitus' dialogus, Quintilian X 1, 105–122 and XII 10, 10—12, also Pliny's letters. Oratorum romanorum fragmenta collegit H. Meyer, Zürich 1832. (Paris reprint 1837.) 1842. A. Westermann, History of Roman eloquence, Leipzig 1835. F. Ellendt, succincta eloquentiae rom. usque ad Caesares historia, in his edition of Cic.'s Brutus. See also Mommsen II2 p. 455. III p. 596 sq.

36. The eloquence of the oldest period was thoroughly natural, the artless expression of an individual excited by a certain situation and certain purposes, possessing political importance and able to speak. But as early as the close of the 5th century Appius Claudius published his speech after it was delivered

and of the funeral speeches mentioned in the 6th century it is possible that they were written down from the very beginning. The undoubtedly greatest orator of the 6th century, Cato the Elder, must generally have written down and published his speeches as political pamphlets, though perhaps only after they were delivered. On the whole in the 6th century v. c. the spoken word was as yet the most important; writing down and publishing speeches was resorted to for political purposes. Besides those of Cato, we hear in this time of published speeches esp. by the elder Africanus, L. Papirius and C. Titius. In the beginning of the sixth century Roman eloquence was already so far advanced that the acquaintance with Greek rhetoric only raised it and made it more conscious of its worth, without depriving it of its national character. The first to attempt an artistic disposition in his speeches was Ser. Sulpicius Galba (cos. 610), and Gracchus the younger was a perfect orator on account of his combination of talent and study. It was the exception, even in the first half of that century, if an orator published none of his speeches, and there were already writers who composed speeches afterwards spoken by others. In the epoch of the Gracchi, practical political speaking had attained to its highest perfection, and maintained itself so during 30 or 40 years. But by and by, when the orator no longer addressed the sovereign People, but a plebeian mob, studied perfection was regarded as less important in a spoken speech. Political purposes became then more insignificant in published speeches: speeches were composed and published as mere specimens of eloquence. The most eminent orators of this time were M. Antonius (Cons. 655) and L. Crassus (Cons. 659); but besides them we find a large number of orators remarkable in their way, e. g. Q. Lutatius Catulus, Q. Mucius Scaevola (Cons. 659), L. Marcius Philippus (Cons. 663), L. Apuleius Saturninus (654), M. Livius Drusus (663), C. Julius Caesar Strabo (aedilis 664), P. Sulpicius Rufus (666), C. Aurelius Cotta (Cons. 679). Without ever losing sight of their practical purposes, the orators and theorists of the Roman school (as e. g. in Sulla's time the Rhetoric addressed to Herennius), kept aloof from the crotchets of the Greek rhetoricians, though they also knew how to appreciate the instruction derived from the Greeks. In the second half of the 7th century men of Roman birth com

menced to give rhetorical instruction in Latin. Through the medium of the Greeks, the exaggerated style then prevailing in Asia was introduced in Rome, and found a representative especially in Hortensius. But his younger contemporary, Cicero, again deserted this style, and joined a mediating school, the Rhodian; by a happy combination of talents, exercised and ennobled by indefatigable industry, he was lifted to the highest place in the artistic eloquence of the Romans. He gained also merit by making the principal doctrines of rhetoric popular among his countrymen. In the later years of his life arose a school that found even him too Asiatic: a number of young men, to whom even Caesar seems to have belonged, made it their principle to revert to the genuine old Attic orators, and the majority even chose as their pattern the simplest writer among them, viz. Lysias. To this school belong M. Brutus, Licinius Calvus, Caelius Rufus, Q. Cornificius, M. Calidius and later Asinius Pollio and M. Messala, the first of whom admired especially Thucydides, the latter Hyperides. Frequently as speeches were published, it was even then very rare that the spoken and the published speech agreed throughout, since the orators would prepare their speeches without ever writing them down elaborately.

1. Cato: orator est, Marce fili, vir bonus dicendi peritus; see Sen. Controv. praef. 9, p. 49, 17 Bu. Comp. Quintil. XII 1, sqq.

2. To the most ancient orators belong P. Licinius Crassus (Cons. 549) and M. Cornelius Cethegus (Cons. 550). Published funeral speeches are mentioned of Q. Caecilius Metellus on his father Lucius (a. 533), of Fabius Cunctator on his son (later than 541), of M. Claudius Marcellus on his father (546); a speech in the senate by Q. Metellus (553) and L. Papirius of Fregellae (circa 580); the defence of the elder Africanus (569), and a speech before the people of C. Titius (593). See below § 112 and 113. The funeral speech on the younger Africanus (625) existed likewise as a publication, see 127, 2. It is possible that these publications had also some political purpose.

3. Quintil. III 1, 19: Romanorum primus, quantum ego quidem sciam, condidit aliqua in hanc materiam (the theory of eloquence) M. Cato ille Censorius (in his praecepta). post M. Antonius inchoavit. But for a long time afterwards self-taught orators are mentioned, e. g. of Curio (Cons. 678) Cicero says (Brut. 59, 214): nullum ille poetam noverat, nullum legerat oratorem, nullam memoriam antiquitatis collegerat; non publicum ius, non privatum et civile cognoverat. quamquam hoc quidem fuit etiam in aliis et magnis quidem oratoribus, ut

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Sulpicio, ut Antonio. But cases of this kind were then only exceptional, and it is wrong when Aper (in Tac. dial. 19) says of the orators of the period of Cicero: paucissimi praecepta rhetorum aut philosophorum placita (the latter might rather be right) cognoverant.

4. Cic. de or. II 22, 92: nostri oratores.. scripta ex quibus iudicium fieri posset non multa sane reliquerunt. This is meant in comparison with the Greeks. Cic. himself mentions Greek speeches of the two Gracchi (Brut. 104. 117), M. Aemilius Scaurus (ib. 112), P. Rutilius Rufus (114), the son of the younger Africanus (77), Q. Tubero (117), Curio (122) and his son (220), Sulpicius Galba (127), Flavius Fimbria (129), T. Albucius (131), Q. Lutatius Catulus (132), Q. Scaevola (163), Caesar (262); besides Quintil. X 1, 116 of Ser. Sulpicius Rufus, Asconius Cornel. p. 934 Or. of Cominius. Comp. Cic. p. Cluent. 50, 140: M. Antonium aiunt solitum esse dicere, idcirco se nullam umquam orationem scripsisse, ut, si quid aliquando non opus esset ab se esse dictum, posset negare dixisse. Extra urbem, too, apud socios et Latinos, existed orators and speeches published by them (Cic. Brut. 169 sq.), e. g. L. Papirius of Fregellae and (circa 650) T. Betutius of Asculum.

5. Cato the Elder and even (C.) Gracchus commenced all their speeches with a prayer to or at least some mention of the Gods, Serv. on Virg. Ae. VII 259. XI 301. Gell. XIII 23 (22), 1 (in plerisque antiquis orationibus). The general manner in which this is related of Cato's speeches leads to the supposition that this holds good of those also which he held in civil causes (causae privatae), the only ones of the kind before the time of Cicero of which we know that they were published, just as in Cicero's own time only a few civil ones delivered before the tribunal of the centum viri are known to us. H. Jordan, Caton. quae extant, p. LXXXVII.

6. L. Aelius Stilo . . scriptitavit orationes multis, orator ipse numquam fuit, Cic. Brut. 169, comp. 205 sq. M. Bibulus scriptitavit accurate, cum praesertim non esset orator, ib. 267. Plotius Gallus dictavit Atratino (the accuser) actionem, Suet. rhet. 2. In this manner C. Caelius for Tubero (Cic. de or. II 84, 341), Laelius for Fabius Maximus (below 127, 2). Cicero himself composed in this manner speeches for Cn. Pompeius and T. Ampius (Quintil. III 8, 50) and (a. 700) for a father the funeral speech on his son Serranus (ad Q. fr. III 8, 5: laudavit pater scripto meo).

7. Cic. Brut. 96, 328: id declarat totidem quot dixit.. scripta verbis oratio. This was not, however, the usual thing, see ib. 24, 91: videmus alios oratores inertia nihil scripsisse, ne domesticus etiam labor accederet ad forensem; pleraeque enim scribuntur orationes habitae iam, non ut habeantur. Cf. ib. 93. Quintil. X 7, 30: plerumque multa agentibus accidit ut maxime necessaria et utique initia (of speeches) scribant, cetera quae domo afferunt cogitatione complectantur, subitis ex tempore occurrant, quod fecisse M. Tullium commentariis ipsius (see ib. IV 1, 69) apparet. Plin. Ep. I 20, 7: .. Ciceronis pro Murena,