History of Famous Orators

History of Famous Orators

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous
Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker.
by Marcus Tullius Cicero Copyright laws are changing all over the
world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before
downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg
eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or
Accomplished Speaker.
Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero

Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9776] [This file was first posted
on October 15, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CICERO'S
BRUTUS OR HISTORY OF FAMOUS ORATORS; ALSO HIS
ORATOR, OR ACCOMPLISHED SPEAKER. ***

E-text prepared by Anne Soulard, Ted Garvin, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

CICERO'S BRUTUS,
OR
HISTORY OF FAMOUS ORATORS:
ALSO,
HIS ORATOR,
OR
ACCOMPLISHED SPEAKER.
Now first translated into English by E. Jones

PREFACE.
As the following Rhetorical Pieces have never appeared before in the

English language, I thought a Translation of them would be no
unacceptable offering to the Public. The character of the Author
(Marcus Tullius Cicero) is so universally celebrated, that it would be
needless, and indeed impertinent, to say any thing to recommend them.
The first of them was the fruit of his retirement, during the remains of
the Civil War in Africa; and was composed in the form of a Dialogue.
It contains a few short, but very masterly sketches of all the Speakers
who had flourished either in Greece or Rome, with any reputation of
Eloquence, down to his own time; and as he generally touches the
principal incidents of their lives, it will be considered, by an attentive
reader, as a concealed epitome of the Roman history. The conference is
supposed to have been held with Atticus, and their common friend
Brutus, in Cicero's garden at Rome, under the statue of Plato, whom he
always admired, and usually imitated in his dialogues: and he seems in
this to have copied even his double titles, calling it _Brutus, or the
History of famous Orators. It was intended as a supplement, or fourth
book_, to three former ones, on the qualifications of an Orator.
The second, which is intitled The Orator, was composed a very short
time afterwards (both of them in the 61st year of his age) and at the
request of Brutus. It contains a plan, or critical delineation, of what he
himself esteemed the most finished Eloquence, or style of Speaking. He
calls it The Fifth Part, or Book, designed to complete his Brutus, and
_the former three_ on the same subject. It was received with great
approbation; and in a letter to Lepta, who had complimented him upon
it, he declares, that whatever judgment he had in Speaking, he had
thrown it all into that work, and was content to risk his reputation on
the merit of it. But it is particularly recommended to our curiosity, by a
more exact account of the rhetorical composition, or prosaic harmony
of the ancients, than is to be met with in any other part of his works.
As to the present Translation, I must leave the merit of it to be decided
by the Public; and have only to observe, that though I have not, to my
knowledge, omitted a single sentence of the original, I was obliged, in
some places, to paraphrase my author, to render his meaning
intelligible to a modern reader. My chief aim was to be clear and

perspicuous: if I have succeeded in that, it is all I pretend to. I must
leave it to abler pens to copy the Eloquence of Cicero. Mine is unequal
to the task.

BRUTUS, OR THE HISTORY OF ELOQUENCE.
When I had left Cilicia, and arrived at Rhodes, word was brought me of
the death of Hortensius. I was more affected with it than, I believe, was
generally expected. For, by the loss of my friend, I saw myself for ever
deprived of the pleasure of his acquaintance, and of our mutual
intercourse of good offices. I