55.1
In eloquence and in the art of war he either equalled or surpassed the fame of their most eminent representatives. After his accusation of Dolabella, he was without question numbered with the leading advocates. At all events when Cicero reviews the orators in his Brutus,Cic. Brut. 261. he says that he does not see to whom Caesar ought to yield the palm, declaring that his style is elegant as well as brilliant, even grand and in a sense noble. Again in a letter to Cornelius Nepos he writes thus of Caesar:
55.2
Come now, what orator would you rank above him of those who have devoted themselves to nothing else? Who has cleverer or more frequent epigrams? Who is either more picturesque or more choice in diction? He appears, at least in his youth, to have imitated the manner of Caesar Strabo, from whose speech entitled For the Sardinians he actually transferred some passages word for word to a trial addressThat is, a speech in which he competed with other advocates for the right to conduct a prosecution. of his own. He is said to have delivered himself in a high-pitched voice with impassioned action and gestures, which were not without grace.
