Book 30
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And when the contending parties are stripped of everything, and days, months and years are used up, at last the case, now worn out with age, is introduced, and those brilliant principalsThe heads of the knighthood (ordo splendidus); cf. xxiii. 6, 83, nobilitas omnis et splendor. come forth, bringing with them other shadows of advocates. And when theyhave come within the barriers= fori cancelli; cf. Cic., Sest. 58, 124, tantus est ex omnibus spectaculis usque a Capitolio, tantus ex fori cancellis plausus excitatus. of the court, and the fortunes or safety of some one begins to be discussed, and they ought to work to turn the sword or ruinous loss from an innocent person, the advocates on both sides wrinkling their brows and waving their arms in semblance of the gestures of actors (so that they lack only the oratorical pipeSee Cic., De Orat. iii. 60, 225; Plut., Tib. Gracch. 2, 4–5; Gaius Gracchus is said to have had a player on a pipe stationed behind him, when he made a speech, to regulate the force of his delivery; Val. Max. viii. 10, 1; Quint. i. 10, 27; Gell. i. 11, 10 ff. of Gracchus behind them) stand for a long time opposite each other. At last, in accordance with a prearranged agreement, the one who is more confident in speech utters a kind of a sweet prologue, promising to emulate the ornamental language of a speech for CluentiusOf Cicero. or Ctesiphon;Demosthenes’ Oration on the Crown. and when all are wishing for the end, such is the method of his peroration that the advocates, after the semblance of a trial has gone on for three years, allege that they are not yet fully informed; and after they have obtained a further postponement, as if they had struggled with AntaeusCf. xxviii. 1, 46, note. of old, they persistently demand the pay for their danger and toil.
