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170 and philosophy, it professes to be a reminiscence of a conversation heard by the author himself, and reported by him afterwards to a friend. "You have often inquired of me, my good friend Justus Fabius," says Tacitus, "how and whence it comes that, while former times display a series of orators conspicuous for ability and their renown, the present age, devoid of them, and without any claim to the praise of eloquence, has scarcely retained even the name of an orator. By that appellation we understand only men of a bygone time; whereas in these days eloquent men are entitled speakers, pleaders, advocates, patrons; in short, everything else except—orators."

The dispute, like so many controversies, polemical or political, before and since, began upon a question not very neatly related to it. Caius Curiatius Maternus, a promising young barrister, was giving much anxiety to his friend Marcus Aper, a pleader then in high repute, by his passion for writing plays and by his neglect of the weightier matters of the law. In the first place, Maternus could not serve two masters. If he went on at his present rate in such unprofitable studies, he must lose many good clients. "Your friends," said Aper to him, "expect your patronage; the colonies invoke your aid; and municipal cities call for you in the courts. Such practice as you could command would soon make you rich. Think, I beseech you, what pretty pickings Eprius Marcellus and Vibius Crispus have already made by their profession, and no one knows who their fathers were; though everybody is aware that they were as poor as rats a few years ago. But neglect of your business is not the worst of it. Those blessed tragedies of yours will, by