But Cicero's immeasurable boasting of himself in his orations
argues him guilty of an uncontrollable appetite for distinction,
his cry being evermore that "Arms should give place to the gown,
and the soldier's laurel to the tongue." And at last we find him
extolling not only his deeds and actions, but his orations, as
well those that were only spoken, as those that were published.
It is necessary for a political leader to be an able speaker; but
it is an ignoble thing for any man to admire the glory of his own
eloquence. And, in this matter, Demosthenes had a more than
ordinary gravity and magnificence of mind, for he considered his
talent in speaking nothing more than a mere accomplishment and
matter of practice, the success of which must depend greatly on
the good-will and candor of his hearers, and regarded those who
pride themselves on such accounts to be men of a low and petty
disposition.
The power of persuading and governing the people did, indeed,
equally belong to both, so that those who had armies and camps at
command stood in need of their assistance; as Chares, Diopithes,
and Leosthenes did that of Demosthenes, and Pompey and young
Caesar of Cicero's, as the latter himself admits in his Memoirs
addressed to Agrippa and Maecenas.
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