t diligence to bring about
the recall from his post a judge of rigid probity, who was fond of
deciding lawsuits equitably, out of a fear lest, as in the times of
Julian, when Innocence was allowed a fair opportunity of defending
itself, the pride of the powerful nobles, which was accustomed to roam
at large with unrestrained licence, might again be broken down.

2. With these and similar objects a great number of persons conspired
together, being led by Modestus, the prefect of the praetorium, who was a
complete slave to the wishes of the emperor's eunuchs, and who, under a
specious countenance, concealed a rough disposition which had never been
polished by any study of ancient virtue or literature, and who was
continually asserting that to look into the minute details of private
actions was beneath the dignity of the emperor. He thinking, as he said,
that the examination of such matters had been imposed on the nobles to
lower their dignity, abstained from all such matters himself, and opened
the doors to plunder; which doors are now daily more and more opened by
the depravity of the judges and advocates, who are all of the same mind,
and who sell the interests of the poor to the military commanders, or
the persons of influence within the palace, by which conduct they
themselves have gained riches and high rank.

3. This profession of forensic oratory the wisdom of Plato defines to be
+politikes moriou eidolon+, "the shadow of a fraction of the art
of government," or a fourth part of the art of flattery. But Epicurus
calls it +kakotechnia+, reckoning it among the wicked arts.
Tisias, who has Gorgias of Leontinum on his side, calls the orator an
artist of persuasion.

4. And while such has been the opinion formed of this art by the
ancients, the craft of some of the Eastern people has put it forward so
as to make it an object of hatred to good men, on which account an
orator it is sometimes restricted to a limited time for speaking.[184]
Therefore, after saying a few words about its unworthy character, as I
found by experience while in those countries, I will return to my
original subject.

5. The tribunals, in former times, when good taste prevailed, were
greatly adorned by our advocates, when orators of spirited
eloquence--laborious and accomplished scholars--shone pre-eminent in
genius, honesty, fluency, and every kind of embellishment of language.
As Demosthenes, who, as we learn from the Athenian records, whenev