Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/540

Rh 526 HORTENSIUS. quite unequal to cope with the experience and elo- quence of Hortensius. Nor did he neglect baser methods to ensure success. Part of the plundered money, which he was engaged to secure to his clients, was unscrupulously expended in corrupting the judices: those who accepted the bribes receiving marked ballots to prevent their playing false (Cic. Divin. in Q. Caecil. 7). It is true this statement rests chiefly on the authority of a rival advocate. But Cicero would hardly have dared to make it so broadly in open court, with his opponent before him, unless he had good v/arrant for its truth. Turius, or Furius, mentioned by Horace (Serm. ii. 1. 49), is said to have been one of the judices cor- rupted by Hortensius. This domination over the courts continued up to about the year B. c. 70, when Hortensius was re- tained by Verres against Cicero. Cicero had come to Rome from Athens in B.C. 81, and first met Hortensius as the advocate of P. Quinctius. Cicero's speech is extant, and not the least interesting part is that in which he describes and admits the extra- ordinary gifts of his future rival {pro Quinct. 1, 2, 22, 24, 26). But Cicero again left Rome, and did not finally settle there till B. c. 74, about three years before the Verrine affair came on. Meantime, Hortensius had begun his course of civil honours. He was quaestor in B. c. 81, and Cicero himself bears witness to the integrity with which his accounts were kept (in Verr. i. 14, 39). Soon after he defended M. Canuleius (Brut 92) ; Cn. Dolabella, when accused of extortion in Cilicia by M. Scaurus ; another Cn. Dolabella, arraigned by Caesar for like offences in Macedonia [Dola- bella, Nos. 5, 6]. In B. c. 75 he was aediie, Cotta the orator being consul, and Cicero quaes- tor in Sicily {Brut 92). The games and shows he exhibited as aediie were long remembered for their extaordinary splendour (Cic. de Of. ii. 16) ; but great part of this splendour was the loan of those noble clients, whose robberies he had so successfully excused (Cic. in Verr. i. 19, 22 ; Ascon. ad. I.). In B. c. 72 he was praetor urbanus, and had the task of trying those delinquents whom he had hitherto defended. In B.C. 69 he reached the summit of civic ambition, being consul for that year with Q. Caecilius Metellus. After his consul- ship the province of Crete fell to him by lot, but he resigned it in favour of his colleague. It was in the year before his consulship, after he was designated, that the prosecution of Verres commenced. Cicero was then aedile-elect, though Hortensius and his party had endejivoured to pre- vent his election, and another Metellus praetor- elect ; so that, had the cause been put off till the next year, Cicero would have had the weight of consular and praetorian authority against him. The skill and activity by which he baffled the schemes of his opponents will be found under his life (p. 710 ; see also Verres). Suffice it to say here, that the issue of this contest was to dethrone Hortensius from the seat which had been already tottering, and to establish his rival, the despised provincial of Arpinum, as the first orator and ad- vocate of the Roman forum. No doubt the victory was complete, though here, as in all the contests between the two orators, the remark of Quintilian is worth noticing, viz. that we have only Cicero's own speeches, and have small means of judging what the case on the other side was (Instil, x. 1 ). It is true also that Verres was backed by all the HORTENSIUS. power of the Sullane aristocracy. But this party had been much weakened by the measures passed by Pompey in his consulship with Crassus in the year before (b. c. 70). Especially, the Aemilian law, which transferred the judicial power from the senators to the senators, equites, and tribuni aera- rii conjointly, must have very much weakened the influence of Hortensius and his party. (Ascon. and Cic. in Pison. p. 16 ; in Cornel, p. 67, Orelli j see Cotta, No. 11). After his consulship, Hortensius took a leading part in supporting the optimates against the rising power of Pompey. He opposed the Gabinian law, which invested that great commander with absolute power on the Mediterranean, in order to put down the pirates of Cilicia (b. c. 67) ; and the Manilian, by which the conduct of the war against Mithri- dates was transferred from Lucullus (of the Sullane party) to Pompeius (b. c. QQ). In fiivour of the latter, Cicero made his first political speech. In the memorable year b. c. 63 Cicero was unanimously elected consul. He had already be- come estranged from the popular party, with whom he had hitherto acted. The intrigues of Caesar and Crassus, who supported his opponents C. An- tonius and the notorious Catiline, touched him personally ; and he found it his duty as consul to oppose the turbulent measures of the popular lead- ers, such as the agrarian law of Rullus. Above all, the conspiracy of Catiline, to which Crassus was suspected of being privy, forced him to combine with the senate for the safety of the state. He thus came to act with the Sullane nobility, and Hortensius no longer appears as his rival. We first find them pleading together for C. Rabirius, an old senator, who was indicted for the murder of C. Saturninus, tribune of the plebs In the times of Sulla. The}' both appeared as counsel for L. Muraena, when accused of bribery in canvassing for the consulship by Sulpicius and Cato ; and again for P. Sulla, accused as an accomplice of Catiline. On all these occasions Hortensius allowed Cicero to speak last — a manifest admission of his former rival's superiority. And that this was the 11 general opinion appears from the fact, that M. .| Piso (consul In 61), in calling over the senate, >' named Cicero second, and Hortensius only fourth. About the same time we find Cicero, in a letter to their mutual friend Atticus, calling him " nuster ^ Hortensius" (ad Att. i. 14). % The last active part which Hortensius took in public life was in the debates of the senate in the prosecution of the infamous Clodlus for his offence _| against the Bona Dea. Fearing delay, he supported ■ the amendment of Fufius, that Clodlus should be tried HJ before the ordinary judices, instead of before a court ' selected by the praetor. Cicero condemns his conduct in strong terms (ad Att. i. 16 ; cf. 14), and seems to have considered the success of this amendment as the chief cause of Clodius's acquittal. [CLonius, p. 771.] In the subsequent quarrels between Milo and Clodlus, Hortensius showed such zeal for the former, that he was nearly being murdered by the hired ruffians of Clodlus (C'ic. pro Mi/oji. 14). In B. c. 61 Pompey returned victorious from the Mlthridatlc war. He found he could no longer command a party of his own. He must side with one of the two factions which had been fully formed during his absence In the East — the old party of the optimates and the new popular pa#ty, led by Caesar and Crassus, who used Clodlus