“Cur clandestinis consiliis nos oppugnant? 
  Cur de perfugis nostris copias comparant inter nos?”

The first two are such sentences as the Greeks call [Greek:  kommata], and we “incisa.”  The third is such as they term [Greek:  kolon], and we “membrum.”  Then comes a short clause; for a perfect conclusion is made up of two verses, that is to say members, and falls into spondees.  And Crassus was very much in the habit of employing this termination, and I myself have a good opinion of this style of speaking.

LXVII.  But those sentiments which are delivered in short clauses, or members, ought to sound very harmoniously, as in a speech of mine you will find:—­

“Domus tibi deerat? at habebas.  Pecunia superabat? at egebas.”

These four clauses are as concise as can be; but then come the two following sentences uttered in members:—­

“Incurristi amens in columnas:  in alienos insanus insanisti.”

After these clauses everything is sustained by a longer class of sentences, as if they were erected on these as their pedestal:—­

“Depressam, caecam, jacentem domum pluris, quam te, et quam fortunas tuas, aestimasti.”

It is ended with a dichoreus; but the next sentence terminates with a double spondee.  For in those feet which speakers should use at times like little daggers, the very brevity makes the feet more free.  For we often must use them separately, often two together, and a part of a foot may be added to each foot, but not often in combinations of more than three.  But an oration when delivered in brief clauses and members, is very forcible in serious causes, especially when you are accusing or refuting an accusation, as in my second Cornelian speech:—­

“O callidos homines!  O rem excogitatam!  O ingenia metuenda!”

Hitherto this is spoken in members.  After that we spoke in short clauses.  Then again in members:—­

“Testes dare volumus.”

At last comes the conclusion, but one made up of two members, than which nothing can be more concise:—­

“Quem, quaeso, nostrum fefellit, ita vos esse facturos?”

Nor is there any style of speaking more lively or more forcible than that which strikes with two or three words, sometimes with single words; very seldom with more than two or three, and among these various clauses there is occasionally inserted a rhythmical period.  And Hegesias, who perversely avoided this usage, while seeking to imitate Lysias, who is almost a second Demosthenes, dividing his sentences into little bits, was more like a dancer than an orator.  And he, indeed, errs not less in his sentences than in his single words, so that a man who knows him has no need to look about for some one whom he may call foolish.  But I have cited those sentences of Crassus’s and my own, in order that whoever chose might judge by his own ears what was rhythmical even in the most insignificant portions of a speech.  And since we have said more about rhythmical oratory than any one of those who have preceded us, we will now speak of the usefulness of that style.