240 



ROMAN PHILOSOPHY. 



Roman 

 eloquence. 



Orators 

 before 

 Cicero. 



art lies in the application of existing materials, in converting the very 

 disadvantages of the language into beauties, 1 in enriching it with 

 circumlocutions and metaphors, in pruning it of harsh and uncouth 

 expressions, in systematizing the structure of a sentence. 8 This is that 

 " copia dicendi " which gained Cicero the high testimony of Caesar to 

 his inventive powers, 3 and which, we may add, constitutes him 

 the greatest master of composition the world has ever seen. If the 

 comparison be not thought fanciful, he may be assimilated to a skilful 

 landscape-gardener, who gives depth and richness to narrow and 

 confined premises, by taste and variety in the disposition of his trees 

 and walks. 



Such, then, are the principal characteristics of Cicero's oratory ; on 

 a review of which we may, with some reason, conclude that Roman 

 eloquence stands scarcely less indebted to his compositions than Roman 

 philosophy. For, though in his ' De claris Oratoribus' he begins his 

 review from the age of Junius Brutus, yet, soberly speaking (and as 

 he seems to allow in the opening of the ' De Oratore'), we cannot 

 assign an earlier date to the rise of eloquence among his countrymen, 

 than that of the same Athenian embassy which introduced the study 

 of philosophy. To aim, indeed, at persuasion, by appeals to the reason 

 or passions, is so natural, that no country, whether refined or barbarous, 

 is without its orators. If, however, eloquence be the mere power of 

 persuading, it is but a relative term, limited to time and place, con- 

 nected with a particular audience, and leaving to posterity no test of 

 its merits, but the report of those whom it has been successful in 

 influencing. " Vulgus interdum," says Cicero, " non probandum ora- 

 torem probat, sed probat sine comparatione, cum a mediocri aut etiam 

 a malo delectatur ; eo est contentus : esse melius sentit : illud quod 

 est, qualecunque est, probat." 4 



The eloquence of Carneades and his associates made (to use a familiar 

 term) a great sensation among the Roman orators, who soon split into 

 two parties ; the one adhering to the rough unpolished manners of 

 their forefathers, the other favouring the artificial graces which distin- 

 guished the Grecian style. In the former class were Cato and Lselius, 5 

 both men of cultivated minds, particularly Cato, whose opposition to 



1 This, which is analogous to his address in pleading, is nowhere more observable 

 than in his rendering the recurrence of the same word, to which he is forced by the 

 barrenness or vagueness of the language, an elegance. 



2 It is remarkable that some authors attempted to account for the invention of 

 the Asiatic style, on the same principle we have here adduced to account for Cicero's 

 adoption of it in Latin; viz., that the Asiatics had a defective knowledge of Greek, 

 and devised phrases, &c., to make up for the imperfections of their scanty vocabulary. 

 See Quint, xii. 10. 



8 De clar. Orat. 72. 



4 De clar. Orat. 52. [" Sometimes the multitude bestow their approval on an 

 orator who does not deserve it, and are pleased with one of mean or no talent : 

 they are sensible that something better exists; but they are content, and approve 

 what they have, such as it is." Editor.'] 



5 De clar. Orat. 72. Quint, xii. 10. 



