Dialogvs de oratoribvs Author:Cornelius Tacitus Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: P. CORNELII TACITI DIALOGVS DE ORATORIBVS. Saepe ex me requiris, luste Fabi, cur, cum priora 1 saecula tot eminentium oratorum ingeniis gloriaque floruerint,... more » nostra potissimum aetas deserta et laude eloquentiae orbata vix nomen ipsum oratoris retineat. Neque enim ita appellamus nisi antiquos, horum autem 2 temporum diserti causidici et advocati et patroni et quidvis potius quam oratores vocantur. Cui percon- 3 tationi tuae respondere et tam magnae quaestionis pondus excipere, ut aut de ingeniis nostris male existi- mandum sit, si idem adsequi non possumus, aut de iudiciis, si nolumus, vix hercule auderem, si mea mihi 1. luste Fabi: a friend of the tur. Disertus is a less compli- younger Pliny (Ep. I. 5. 8 ; 11), as mentary designation than orator well as of Tacitus. Nothing else or eloquens; cf. Cic. de Or. I. 94 is known concerning him. Pos- scripsi ... disertos cognosse me non- sibly he is the L. Fabius Justus nullos, eloquentem adhuc neminem. who was consul suffectus 102 A.D. So Quintilian, I. 10. 8, contrasts Writers of the Silver Age fre- disertus and orator. — causidici: quently transpose the nomen and regularly in a disparaging sense, cognomen, as here, but only when pettifoggers. — advocati: in the the praenomen is omitted. The post-Augustan period synonymous same transposition occurs also a with patronus, i.e. pleader. Earlier few times as early as Cicero, e.g. it was applied to the friends of ad Att. VIII. 15. 3 Batbus Cor- the accused who lent him their nelius; pro Milone 3. 8 Ahala moral support by appearing with Servilius. Other instances in the him in court. Dialogus are 13. 4 Secundus Pom- 3. pondus, burden. This figu- ponius, Afro Domitio. — priora rative use of the word is rare in saecula: i.e. the times of the Re- prose. — excipere : to undertake ...« less