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182 heard in small narrow rooms, in which it is not necessary to raise the voice, or to display energy in pleading. Whereas the true orator, like a noble horse, requires liberty and space. Before a few hearers his spirit droops: in a confined room his genius flags."

He winds up his argument with some timely and sound consolation to the men of his time. Oratory may be on the decline; but have we nothing to counterbalance the loss of it? Would we, if the choice were offered to us, return to the days when Rome exhibited one perpetual scene of contention? Could all the eloquence of the Gracchi atone for the laws which they imposed on their country? Did the fame that Cicero won by eloquence compensate him for the tragic end to which his orations against Marcus Antonius brought him? Believe me, my excellent friends, had it been your lot to live under the old republic, you would have been as famous, and perhaps as much harassed by anxiety and envy, as the orators you so much admire; and had it been their lot to live in these piping times of peace, the heroes of the bar would have acquiesced in the tranquillity we enjoy. It may not be easy—it may be impossible—for us to attain a great and splendid reputation as orators; but we can at least be content with the calmer tenor of the present age, and applaud, without envying, our ancestors.

It would be idle to speculate whether Tacitus imaged himself in the characters of Julius Secundus, of Vipstanus Messala, or of Curiatius Maternus. The speeches he ascribes to them respectively display oratorical qualities of a very high order, especially when we remember that the 'Dialogue' is one of his earliest works.