Book 1
10.18
We are told that the Spartans even regarded a certain form of dance as a useful element in military training. Nor again did the ancient Romans consider such a practice as disgraceful: this is clear from the fact that priestly and ritual dances have survived to the present day, while Cicero in the third book of his de Oratore lix. 220. quotes the words of Crassus, in which he lays down the principle that the orator should learn to move his body in a bold and manly fashion derived not from actors or the stage, but from martial and even from gymnastic exercises. And such a method of training has persisted uncensured to our own time.
10.19
In my opinion, however, such training should not extend beyond the years of boyhood, and even boys should not devote too much time to it. For I do not wish the gestures of oratory to be modelled on those of the dance. But I do desire that such boyish exercises should continue to exert a certain influence, and that something of the grace which we acquired as learners should attend us in after life without our being conscious of the fact.
