d when they have arrived within the bar, and
the fortune or safety of some one is at stake, and they ought to labour
to ward off the sword of the executioner from some innocent man, or
calamity and ruin, then, with wrinkled brows, and arms thrown about with
actor-like gestures, so that they want nothing but the flute of Gracchus
at their back,[186] then they keep silence for some time on both sides;
and at last, after a scene of premeditated collusion, some plausible
preamble is pronounced by that one of them who is most confident in his
power of speaking, and who promises an oration which shall rival the
beauties of the oration for Cluentius[187] or for Ctesiphon.[188] And
then, when all are eager for him to make an end, he concludes his
preamble with a statement that the chief advocates have as yet only had
three years since the commencement of the suit to prepare themselves to
conduct it; and so obtains an adjournment, as if they had to wrestle
with the ancient Antaeus, while still they resolutely demand the pay due
for their arduous labours.

20. And yet, in spite of all these things, advocates are not without
some inconveniences, which are hard to be endured by one who would live
uprightly. For being allured by small gains, they quarrel bitterly among
themselves, and offend numbers by the insane ferocity of their evil
speaking, which they pour forth when they are unable to maintain the
weakness of the case intrusted to them by any sound reasoning.

21. And sometimes the judges prefer persons who have been instructed in
the quibbles of Philistion or AEsop, to those who come from the school of
Aristides the Just, or of Cato--men who, having bought public offices
for large sums of money, proceed like troublesome creditors to hunt out
every one's fortune, and so shake booty for themselves out of the laps
of others.

22. Finally, the profession of a lawyer, besides other things, has in it
this, which is most especially formidable and serious (and this quality
is almost innate in all litigants), namely that when, through one or
other out of a thousand accidents, they have lost their action, they
fancy that everything which turned out wrong was owing to the conduct of
their counsel, and they usually attribute the loss of every suit to him,
and are angry, not with the weakness of their case or (as they often
might be) with the partiality of the judge, but only with their
advocate. Let us now return to the affairs from wh