By this time you know the insolence of the man. You know what a tribune-like pride and
arrogance he has. How great was the animosity which he displayed! O ye immortal gods! how great
was his pride! how great his ignorance of himself! how preposterous and intolerable was his
arrogance! when he was indignant even at this, (from which all those proceedings of his took
their rise,) that Oppianicus was not pardoned at his entreaty and owing to his defence; just as
if it ought not to have been proof enough that he was deserted by every one, that he had
recourse to such an advocate as him. For there was at Rome a great abundance of advocates, most eloquent and most honourable men, of
whom certainly any one would have defended a Roman knight, of noble birth in his municipality,
if he had thought that such a cause could be defended with honour.
For, as for Quinctius, indeed, what cause had he ever pleaded before, though he was now nearly
fifty years old? Who had ever seen him not only in the position of a counsel for the defence,
but even as a witness to character, or as employed in any “The Latin is,
‘non modo in patroni, sed in laudatoris, aut
advocati, loco viderat.’ In the time of Cicero the advocatus was different from the person who conducted the suit
(patronus) and made the speech, though in later times this
person likewise is called advocatus.”—Riddle, Lat. Dict. in
voc. way in any cause? who, because he had seized on the rostrum which had been for some
time empty, and the place which had been deserted by the voice of the tribunes ever since the
arrival of Lucius Sulla, and had recalled the multitude, which had now been for some time unused
to assemblies, to the likeness of the old custom, was on that account for a short time rather
popular with a certain set of men. But yet afterwards how hated he became by those very men by
whose means he had mounted into a higher position!—and very deservedly.