[8]
He records that Gnaeus Lentulus acquired a greater reputation by his delivery than
by his actual eloquence, and that Gains Gracchus
by the same means stirred the whole Roman people
to tears when he bewailed his brother's death,
while Antonius and Crassus produced a great impression by their command of this quality, though
the greatest of all was that produced by Quintus
Hortensius.1 This statement is strongly supported
by the fact that the latter's writings fall so far
short of the reputation which for so long secured
him the first place among orators, then for a
while caused him to be regarded as Cicero's rival,
and finally, for the remainder of his life assigned
him a position second only to that of Cicero, that
his speaking must clearly have possessed some
charm which we fail to find when we read him.
1 Brut. lxvi., lxxxix., xxxviii., xliii., lxxxviii.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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