drop those who were only classed in the number of good _speakers_, and
turn our attention to such as were really _Orators_."--"I think so too,"
replied Atticus; "for I understood that you meant to give us an account,
not of those who took great pains to be eloquent, but of those who were so
in reality."--"C. Julius then," said I, (the son of Lucius) was certainly
superior, not only to his predecessors, but to all his cotemporaries, in
wit and humour: he was not, indeed, a nervous and striking Orator, but, in
the elegance, the pleasantry, and the agreeableness of his manner, he has
not been excelled by any man. There are some Orations of his still extant,
in which, as well as in his Tragedies, we may discover a pleasing
tranquillity of expression with very little energy. P. Cethegus, his
cotemporary, had always enough to say on matters of civil regulation; for
he had studied and comprehended them with the minutest accuracy; by which
means he acquired an equal authority in the Senate with those who had
served the office of consul, and though he made no figure in a public
debate, he was a serviceable veteran in any suit of a private nature. Q.
Lucretius Vispillo was an acute Speaker, and a good Civilian in the same
kind of causes: but Osella was better qualified for a public harangue,
than to conduct a judicial process. T. Annius Velina was likewise a man of
sense, and a tolerable pleader; and T. Juventius had a great deal of
practice in the same way:--the latter indeed was rather too heavy and
unanimated, but at the same time he was keen and artful, and knew how to
seize every advantage which was offered by his antagonist; to which we may
add, that he was far from being a man of no literature, and had an
extensive knowledge of the Civil Law. His scholar, P. Orbius, who was
almost cotemporary with me, had no great practice as a pleader; but his
skill in the Civil Law was nothing inferior to his master's. As to Titus
Aufidius, who lived to a great age, he was a professed imitator of both;
and was indeed a worthy inoffensive man, but seldom spoke at the bar. His
brother, M. Virgilius, who when he was a tribune of the people, commenced