Demosthenes, like other orators, first became known as the composer of speeches for litigants; but his fame was based on the orations he pronounced in great political emergencies.  His rival was Aeschines, who was vastly inferior to Demosthenes, although bold, vigorous, and brilliant.  Indeed, the opinions of mankind for two thousand years have been unanimous in ascribing to Demosthenes the highest position as an orator among all the men of ancient and modern times.  David Hume says of him that “could his manner be copied, its success would be infallible over a modern audience.”  Says Lord Brougham, “It is rapid harmony exactly adjusted to the sense.  It is vehement reasoning, without any appearance of art.  It is disdain, anger, boldness, freedom involved in a continual stream of argument; so that of all human productions his orations present to us the models which approach the nearest to perfection.”

It is probable that the Romans were behind the Athenians in all the arts of rhetoric; yet in the days of the republic celebrated orators arose among the lawyers and politicians.  It was in forensic eloquence that Latin prose first appeared as a cultivated language; for the forum was to the Romans what libraries are to us.  The art of public speaking in Rome was early developed.  Cato, Laelius, Carbo, and the Gracchi are said to have been majestic and harmonious in speech, yet excelled by Antonius, Crassus, Cotta, Sulpitius, and Hortensius.  The last had a very brilliant career as an orator, though his orations were too florid to be read.  Caesar was also distinguished for his eloquence, its characteristics being force and purity.  “Coelius was noted for lofty sentiment, Brutus for philosophical wisdom, Calidius for a delicate and harmonious style, and Calvus for sententious force.”

But all the Roman orators yielded to Cicero, as the Greeks did to Demosthenes.  These two men are always coupled together when allusion is made to eloquence.  They were pre-eminent in the ancient world, and have never been equalled in the modern.

Cicero, 106 B.C., was probably not equal to his great Grecian rival in vehemence, in force, in fiery argument which swept everything away before him, nor generally in original genius; but he was his superior in learning, in culture, and in breadth.  Cicero distinguished himself very early as an advocate, but his first great public effort was made in the prosecution of Verres for corruption.  Although Verres was defended by Hortensius and backed by the whole influence of the Metelli and other powerful families, Cicero gained his cause,—­more fortunate than Burke in his prosecution of Warren Hastings, who also was sustained by powerful interests and families.  The speech on the Manilian Law, when Cicero appeared as a political orator, greatly contributed to his popularity.  I need not describe his memorable career,—­his successive elections to all the highest offices of state, his detection of Catiline’s conspiracy,