Book 11
1.7
This explains why he studied under the instruction of the actor Andronicus with such diligence and success as thoroughly to justify the remark made by Aeschines to the Rhodians when they expressed their admiration of the speech of Demosthenes on behalf of Ctesiphon, What would you have said if you had heard him yourselves? de Or. III. lvi. 213. Aeschincs in exile at Rhodes first recited his own speech against Ctesiphon, and then by special request read Demosthenes' reply, the famous De Corona. Cicero likewise regards action as the supreme element of oratory.
1.8
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. Brut. lxvi., lxxxix., xxxviii., xliii., lxxxviii. 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.
