Lucius Seneca - Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 2)

"Indeed, Catulus," replied Caesar, "I think I have already gained some profit 10by coming here; for these reasons for declining a discussion have been to me a very agreeable discussion. But why do we delay Antonius, whose part is, I hear, to give a dissertation upon eloquence in general, and for whom Cotta and Sulpicius have been some time waiting? "But I," interposed Crassus, "will neither allow Antonius to speak a word, nor will I utter a syllable myself, unless I first obtain one favour from you." "What is it?" said Catulus. "That you spend the day here." Then, while Catulus hesitated, because he had promised to go to his brother's house, "I," said Julius, "will answer for both. We will do so; and you would detain me even if you were not to say a single word." Here Catulus smiled, and said, "My hesitation then is brought to an end; for I had left no instructions at home, and he, whose house I was to have visited, has so readily engaged us to you, without waiting for my assent."

They then all turned their eyes upon Antonius, who cried out, "Be attentive, I say, be attentive, for you shall hear a man from the schools, a man from the professor's chair, deeply versed in Greek learning; 11and I shall on this account speak with the greater confidence, that Catulus is added to the audience, to whom not only we of the Latin tongue, but even the Greeks themselves, concede that he is refined and elegant in the Greek language. But since the whole process of speaking, whether it be an art or a business, can be of no avail without the addition of assurance, I will teach you, my pupils, that which I have not learned myself, what I think of every kind of speaking." When they all laughed, "It is a matter that seems to me," proceeded he, "to depend very greatly on talent, but only moderately on art; for art lies in things which are known; but all the pleading of an orator depends not on knowledge, but on opinion; for we both address ourselves to those who are ignorant, and speak of what we do not know ourselves; and consequently our hearers think and judge differently at different times concerning the same subjects, and we often take contrary sides, not only so that Crassus sometimes speaks against me, or I against Crassus, when one of us must of necessity propose what is false; but even that each of as, at different times, maintains different opinions on the same question; when more than one of those opinions cannot possibly be right. I will speak, therefore, as on a subject which is of a character to defend falsehood, which rarely arrives at knowledge, 12and which is ready to take advantage of the opinions and even errors of mankind, if you think that there is still reason why you should listen to me."

"We think, indeed, that there is very great reason," said Catulus, "and the more so, as you seem resolved to use no ostentation; for you have commenced, not boastfully, but rather, as you think, with truth, than with any fanciful notion of the dignity of your subject." "As I have acknowledged then," continued Antonius, "that it is not one of the greatest of arts, so I allow, at the same time, that certain skilful directions may be given for moving the feelings and gaining the favour of mankind. If any one thinks proper to say that the knowledge how to do this is a great art, I shall not contradict him; for as many speakers speak upon cases in the forum without due consideration or method, while others, from study, or a certain degree of practice, do their business more effectively, there is no doubt, that if any one sets himself to observe what is the cause why some speak better than others, he may discover that cause; and, consequently, he who shall extend such observation over the whole field of eloquence, will find in it, if not an art absolutely, yet something resembling an art. And I could wish, that as I seem to see matters as they occur in the forum, and in pleadings, so I could now set them before you just as they are conducted!

"But I must consider my own powers. I now assert only that of which I am convinced, that although oratory is not an art, no excellence is superior to that of a consummate orator. For to say nothing of the advantages of eloquence, which has the highest influence in every well-ordered and free state, there is such delight attendant on the very power of eloquent speaking, that nothing more pleasing can be received into the ears or understanding of man. What music can be found more sweet than the pronunciation of a well-ordered speech? What poem more agreeable than the skilful structure of prose? What actor has ever given greater pleasure in imitating, than an orator gives in supporting, truth? What penetrates the mind more keenly than an acute and quick succession of arguments? What is more admirable than thoughts illumined by brilliancy of expression? What nearer to perfection than a speech replete with every variety of matter? for there is no subject susceptible of being treated with elegance and effect, that may not fall under the province of the orator. LIt is his, in giving counsel on important affairs, to deliver his opinion with clearness and dignity; it is his to rouse a people when they are languid, and to calm them when immoderately excited. The same power of language causes the wickedness of mankind to be destroyed, and virtue to be secured. Who can exhort to virtue more ardently than the orator? Who reclaim from vice with greater energy? Who can reprove the bad with more asperity, or praise the good with better grace? Who can break the force of unlawful desire by more effective rebukes? Who can alleviate grief with more soothing consolation? By what other voice, too, than that of the orator, is history, the evidence of time, the light of truth, the life of memory, the directress of life, the herald of antiquity, committed to immortality? For if there be any other art, which professes skill in inventing or selecting words; if any one, besides the orator, is said to form a discourse, 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 property of this art; but as an orator can speak best of all men on subjects that belong to other arts, if he makes himself acquainted with them, (as Crassus observed yesterday,) so the professors of other arts speak more eloquently on their own subjects, if they have acquired any instruction from this art; for if any person versed in agriculture has spoken or written with eloquence on rural affairs, or a physician, as many have done, on diseases, or a painter upon painting, his eloquence is not on that account to be considered as belonging to any of those arts; although in eloquence, indeed, such is the force of human genius, many men of every class and profession 13attain 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 arts can discharge their duties without eloquence, but that an orator cannot even acquire his name without it; so that other men, if they are eloquent, borrow something from him; while he, if he is not supplied from his own stores, cannot obtain the power of speaking from any other art."

Catulus then said, "Although, Antonius, the course of your remarks ought by no means to be delayed by interruption, yet you will bear with me and grant me pardon; for I cannot help crying out, as the man in the Trinummus 14says, so ably do you seem to me to have described the powers of the orator, and so copiously to have extolled them, as the eloquent man, indeed, must necessarily do; he must extol eloquence best of all men; for to praise it he has to employ the very eloquence which he praises. But proceed, for I agree with you, that to speak eloquently is all your own; and that, if any one does so 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 humanised you; for in yesterday's address to us, 15you described the orator as a man who can do only one thing, like a waterman or a porter, as Caecilius 16says; a fellow void of all learning and politeness." 'Why yesterday,' replied Antonius, "I had made it my object, if I refuted you, to take your pupils from you; 17but now, as Catulus and Caesar make part of the audience, I think I ought not so much to argue against you, as to declare what I myself think. It follows then, that, as the orator of whom we speak is to be placed in the forum, and in the view of the public, we must consider what employment we are to give him, and to what duties we should wish him to be appointed. For Crassus 18yesterday, when you, Catulus and Caesar, were not present, made, in a few words, the same statement, in regard to the division of the art, that most of the Greeks have made; not expressing what he himself thought, but what was said by them; that there are two principal sorts of questions about which eloquence is employed; one indefinite, the other definite. He seemed to me to call that indefinite in which the subject of inquiry is general, as, Whether eloquence is desirable; whether honours should be sought; and that definite in which there is an inquiry with respect to particular persons, or any settled and defined point; of which sort are the questions discussed in the forum, and in the lawsuits and disputes of private citizens. These appear to me to consist either in judicial pleadings, or in giving counsel; for that third kind, which was noticed by Crassus, and which, I hear, Aristotle 19himself, who has fully illustrated these subjects, added, is, though it be useful, less necessary." "What kind do you mean?" said Catulus; "is it panegyric? for I observe that that is introduced as a third kind."