years have elapsed, and till he
himself has been sucked dry to his very marrow.

14. There is a fourth and last class, impudent, saucy, and ignorant,
consisting of those men who, having left school too early, run about
the corners of cities, giving more time to farces than to the study of
actions and defences, wearing out the doors of the rich, and hunting for
the luxuries of banquets and rich food.

15. And when they have given themselves up to gains, and to the task of
hunting for money by every means, they incite men, on any small pretence
whatever, to go to law; and if they are permitted to defend a cause,
which but seldom happens, it is not till they are before the judge,
while the pleadings are being recited, that they begin to inquire into
the cause of the client, or even into his name; and then they so
overflow with a heap of unarranged phrases and circumlocutions, that
from the noise and jabber of the vile medley you would fancy you were
listening to Thersites.

16. But when it happens that they have no single allegation they can
establish, they then resort to an unbridled licence of abuse; for which
conduct they are continually brought to trial themselves, and convicted,
when they have poured ceaseless abuse upon people of honour; and some of
these men are so ignorant that they do not appear ever to have read any
books.

17. And if in a company of learned men the name of any ancient author is
ever mentioned, they fancy it to be some foreign name of a fish or other
eatable. And if any stranger asks (we will say) for Marcianus, as one
with whom he is as yet unacquainted, they all at once pretend that their
name is Marcianus.

18. Nor do they pay the slightest attention to what is right; but as if
they had been sold to and become the property of Avarice, they know
nothing but a boundless licence in asking. And if they catch any one in
their toils, they entangle him in a thousand meshes, pretending sickness
by way of protracting the consultations. And to produce an useless
recital of some well-known law, they prepare seven costly methods of
introducing it, thus weaving infinite complications and delays.

19. And when at last days and months and years have been passed in these
proceedings, and the parties to the suit are exhausted, and the whole
matter in dispute is worn out with age, then these men, as if they were
the very heads of their profession, often introduce sham advocates
along with themselves. An