all sound oratory disappeared. Hermagoras, Quintilian says, in the
chapter already cited, was the disciple of Theodorus.

Section XX.

[a] Doctor Middleton says, "Of the seven excellent orations, which now
remain on the subject of VERRES, the first two only were spoken; the
one called, _The Divination_; the other, _The first Action_, which is
nothing more than a general preface to the whole cause. The other five
were published afterwards, as they were prepared and intended to be
spoken, if Verres had made a regular defence: for as this was the only
cause in which Cicero had yet been engaged, or ever designed to be
engaged, as _an accuser_, so he was willing to leave those orations as
a specimen of his abilities in that way, and the _pattern of a just
and diligent impeachment of a great and corrupt magistrate." Life of
Cicero_, vol. i. p. 86, 4to edit.

[b] The Digest enumerates a multitude of rules concerning _exceptions_
to persons, things, the form of the action, the niceties of pleading,
and, as the phrase is, motions in arrest of judgement. _Formula_, was
the set of words necessary to be used in the pleadings. See the
_Digest_, lib. xliv. tit. 1. _De Exceptionibus, Praescriptionibus, et
Praejudiciis_. See also Cujacius, _observat._ xxiii.

[c] The oration for Marcus Tullius is highly praised by Macrobius, but
is not to be found in Cicero's works. The oration for Aulus Caecina is
still extant. The cause was about the right of succession to a private
estate, which depended on a subtle point of law, arising from the
interpretation of the praetor's interdict. It shews Cicero's exact
knowledge and skill in the civil law, and that his public character
and employment gave no interruption to his usual diligence in pleading
causes. Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, vol. i. p. 116, 4to edit.

[d] Roscius, in the last period of the republic, was the comedian,
whom all Rome admired for his talents. The great esteemed and loved
him for his morals. AEsop, the tragedian, was his contemporary. Horace,
in the epistle to Augustus, has mentioned them both with their proper
and distinctive qualities.

----Ea cum reprehendere coner
Quae GRAVIS AESOPUS, quae DOCTUS ROSCIUS egit.

A certain measured gravity of elocution being requisite in tragedy,
that quality is assigned to the former, and the latter is called
DOCTUS, because he was a complete master of his art; so truly learned
in the principles of his profession, th