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The age at which the orator should begin to
plead will of course depend on the development of
his strength. I shall not specify it further, since it
is clear that Demosthenes pleaded against his
guardians while he was still a mere boy, Calvus,
Caesar and Pollio1 all undertook cases of the first
importance before they were old enough to be
qualified for the quaestorship, others are said to have
pleaded while still wearing the garb of boyhood,
and Augustus Caesar delivered a funeral oration over
his grandmother from the public rostra when he was
only twelve years old.
1 Demosthenes was 18, Crassus 19, Caesar 21, Asinius Pollio and Calvus not much older. See Tac. Dial. 34.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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