Cicero

And yet some of those who pretend to be imitators of Demosthenes dwell much upon an expression which Cicero used in a letter to one of his friends, to the effect that in some parts of his speeches Demosthenes nods; but of the great and admirable praises which he often bestows upon him, and of the fact that those speeches of his own to which he devoted most labour, namely, the speeches against Antony, were entitled by him Philippics, they say nothing.

Moreover, of the men of his own time who were famous for eloquence or learning, there is not one whom he did not make more famous by what he said or wrote in favour of him. For Cratippus the Peripatetic he obtained the Roman citizenship from Caesar, now in power, and he also induced the council of the Areiopagus to pass a decree requesting him to remain at Athens and discourse with the young men, and thus be an ornament to the city.

Furthermore, there are letters from Cicero to Herodes, and others to his son, in which he urges them to study philosophy with Cratippus.[*](These letters are not extant.) But Gorgias the rhetorician he censured for leading the young man into pleasures and drinking parties, and banished him from his son’s society.[*](The younger Cicero, in a letter to Tiro (ad fam. xvi. 21, 6), says that he had found Gorgias useful as a teacher of declamation, but had dismissed him in obedience to his father’s positive command.)

This is almost the only one of his Greek letters (there is also a second, addressed to Pelops of Byzantium) which was written in a spirit of anger; and Gorgias he properly rebukes, if, as he was thought to be, he was worthless and intemperate; but towards Pelops he shows a mean and querulous spirit for having neglected to obtain for him certain honorary decrees from the Byzantians.