Orātor
The word
orator (also
patronus), of one who
pleads the case of a client (
cliens), is not at all identical in meaning
with
iuris consultus (q. v.), or even
advocatus (q.
v.). He need not be skilled in legal lore, which the jurisconsults possessed, but depended
largely for his success upon voice, gesture, and the eloquence of his language. The earliest
orators at Rome got their knowledge practically by observing the pleadings of the older men
and by advice, experience, and trial of themselves. Under the Empire the principal speakers
were trained in the schools of the rhetoricians (see
Rhetorica), and thus gradually lost the power and form of the earlier style of
speaking (
Petron. i). In the republican period oratory was the
noblest of the professions, awarding the key to political power and influence; but when
freedom was lost, the art declined, and became a mere plaything for the young. See Cicero,
Brut. 91 foll.; the
Dialogus of Tacitus; and Westermann,
Geschichte d. röm. Beredsamkeit (Leipzig, 1835); also
Berger and Cucheval,
Histoire de l'Eloquence Latine jusqu' à
Cicéron, 2 vols.
(Paris, 1872).
