Produced by Anne Soulard, Ted Garvin, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
Now first translated into English by E. Jones
As the following Rhetorical Pieces have never appeared before in theEnglish language, I thought a Translation of them would be no unacceptableoffering to the Public. The character of the Author (Marcus TulliusCicero) is so universally celebrated, that it would be needless, andindeed impertinent, to say any thing to recommend them.
The first of them was the fruit of his retirement, during the remains ofthe Civil War in Africa; and was composed in the form of a Dialogue. Itcontains a few short, but very masterly sketches of all the Speakerswho had flourished either in Greece or Rome, with any reputation ofEloquence, down to his own time; and as he generally touches the principalincidents of their lives, it will be considered, by an attentive reader,as a concealed epitome of the Roman history. The conference is supposedto have been held with Atticus, and their common friend Brutus, inCicero's garden at Rome, under the statue of Plato, whom he alwaysadmired, and usually imitated in his dialogues: and he seems in this tohave copied even his double titles, calling it Brutus, or the Historyof famous Orators. It was intended as a supplement, or fourth book,to three former ones, on the qualifications of an Orator.
The second, which is intitled The Orator, was composed a very short timeafterwards (both of them in the 61st year of his age) and at the requestof Brutus. It contains a plan, or critical delineation, of what he himselfesteemed the most finished Eloquence, or style of Speaking. He calls itThe Fifth Part, or Book, designed to complete his Brutus, and theformer three on the same subject. It was received with great approbation;and in a letter to Lepta, who had complimented him upon it, he declares,that whatever judgment he had in Speaking, he had thrown it all into thatwork, and was content to risk his reputation on the merit of it. But it isparticularly recommended to our curiosity, by a more exact account of therhetorical composition, or prosaic harmony of the ancients, than is tobe met with in any other part of his works.
As to the present Translation, I must leave the merit of it to be decidedby the Public; and have only to observe, that though I have not, to myknowledge, omitted a single sentence of the original, I was obliged, insome places, to paraphrase my author, to render his meaning intelligibleto a modern reader. My chief aim was to be clear and perspicuous: if Ihave succeeded in that, it is all I pretend to. I must leave it to ablerpens to copy the Eloquence of Cicero. Mine is unequal to the task.
When I had left Cilicia, and arrived at Rhodes, word was brought me of thedeath of Hortensius. I was more affected with it than, I believe, wasgenerally expected. For, by the loss of my friend, I saw myself for everdeprived of the pleasure of his acquaintance, and of our mutualintercourse of good offices. I likewise reflected, with Concern, that thedignity of our College must suffer greatly by the decease of such aneminent augur.