ducti et
redempti mancipes. Convenitur in media basilica, ubi tam palam
sportulae quam in triclinio dantur._ Plin. lib, ii. epist. 14. He adds
in the same epistle, LARGIUS LICINIUS first introduced this custom,
merely that he might procure an audience. _Primus hunc audiendi morem
induxit Largius Licinius, hactenus tamen ut auditores corrogaret._

[b] This anecdote is also related by Pliny, in the following manner:
Quintilian, his preceptor, told him that one day, when he attended
Domitius Afer in a cause before the _centumviri_, a sudden and
outrageous noise was heard from the adjoining court. Afer made a
pause; the disturbance ceased, and he resumed the thread of his
discourse. He was interrupted a second and a third time. He asked, who
was the advocate that occasioned so much uproar? Being told, that
Licinius was the person, he addressed himself to the court in these
words: _Centumvirs! all true eloquence is now at an end. Ex
Quintiliano, praeceptore meo, audisse memini: narrabat ille, Assectabar
Domitium Afrum, cum apud centumviros diceret graviter et lente (hoc
enim illi actionis genus erat), audiit ex proximo immodicum
insolitumque clamorem; admiratus reticuit; ubi silentium factum est,
repetit quod abruperat; iterum clamor, iterum reticuit; et post
silentium, coepit idem tertio. Novissime quis diceret quaesivit.
Responsum est, Licinius. Tum intermissa causa_, CENTUMVIRI, _inquit_,
HOC ARTIFICIUM PERIIT. Lib. ii. ep. 14. Domitius Afer has been
mentioned, s. xiii. note [d]. To what is there said of him may be
added a fact related by Quintilian, who says that Afer, when old and
superannuated, still continued at the bar, exhibiting the decay of
genius, and every day diminishing that high reputation which he once
possessed. Hence men said of him, he had rather _decline_ than
_desist_. _Malle eum deficere, quam desinere._ Quint. lib. xii. cap.
11.

[c] The men who applauded for hire, went from court to court to bellow
forth their venal approbation. Pliny says, No longer ago than
yesterday, two of my _nomenclators_, both about the age of seventeen,
were bribed to play the part of critics. Their pay was about three
_denarii_: that at present is the price of eloquence. _Ex judicio in
judicium pari mercede transitur. Heri duo nomenclatores mei (habent
sane aetatem eorum, qui nuper togas sumpserunt), ternis denariis ad
laudandum trahebantur. Tanti constat, ut sis disertus._ Lib. ii.
epist. 14.

[d] The whole account of