Section 8.
[a] This want of decorum before the tribunals of justice would appear incredible, were it not well attested by the younger Pliny. The audience, he says, was suited to the orators. Mercenary wretches were hired to applaud in the courts, where they were treated at the expence of the advocate, as openly as if they were in a banqueting-room. Sequuntur auditores actoribus similes, conducti et redempti mancipes. Convenitur in mediâ basilicâ, ubi tam palam sportulæ 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.
[] 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, præceptore meo, audisse memini: narrabat ille, Assectabar Domitium Afrum, cum apud centumviros diceret graviter et lentè (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, cœpit idem tertio. Novissimè quis diceret quæsivit. Responsum est, Licinius. Tum intermissâ causâ, 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 ætatem eorum, qui nuper togas sumpserunt), ternis denariis ad laudandum trahebantur. Tanti constat, ut sis disertus. Lib. ii. epist. 14.
[d] The whole account of the trade of puffing is related in the Dialogue, on the authority of Pliny, who tells us that those wretched sycophants had two nick-names; one in Greek, [Greek: Sophokleis], and the other in Latin, LAUDICÆNI; the former from sophos, the usual exclamation of applause, as in Martial: Quid tam grande sophos clamat tibi turba, togata; the Latin word importing parasites who sold their praise for a supper. Inde jam non inurbanè [Greek: Sophokleis] vocantur; iisdem nomen Latinum impositum est, LAUDICÆNI. Et tamen crescit indies fœditas utrâque linguâ notata. Lib. ii. epist. 14.
Section 10.
[a] Pliny tells us, that he employed much of his time in pleading causes before the centumviri; but he grew ashamed of the business, when he found those courts attended by a set of bold young men, and not by lawyers of any note or consequence. But still the service of his friends, and his time of life, induced him to continue his practice for some while longer, lest he should seem, by quitting it abruptly, to fly from fatigue, not from the indecorum of the place. He contrived however to appear but seldom, in order to withdraw himself by degrees. Nos tamen adhuc et utilitas amicorum, et ratio ætatis, moratur ac retinet. Veremur enim ne fortè non has indignitates reliquisse, sed laborem fugisse videamur. Sumus tamen solito rariores, quod initium est gradatim desinendi. Lib. ii. epist. 14.
Section 11.
[a] The person here distinguished from the rest of the rhetoricians, is the celebrated Quintilian, of whose elegant taste and superior judgement it were superfluous to say a word. Martial has given his character in two lines:—
Quintiliane, vagæ moderator summe juventæ,