8.  To oppose the torrent, that bore down every thing, the danger of losing all fair and honest fame was the only circumstance that could afford a ray of hope.  But even that slender fence was soon removed by the arts of [a] Largius Licinius.  He was the first that opened a new road to ambition.  He intrigued for fame, and filled the benches with an audience suborned to applaud his declamations.  He had his circle round him, and shouts of approbation followed.  It was upon that occasion that Domitius Afer [b] emphatically said, Eloquence is now at the last gasp.  It had, indeed, at that time shewn manifest symptoms of decay, but its total ruin may be dated from the introduction of a mercenary band [c] to flatter and applaud.  If we except a chosen few, whose superior genius has not as yet been seduced from truth and nature, the rest are followed by their partisans, like actors on the stage, subsisting altogether on the bought suffrages of mean and prostitute hirelings.  Nor is this sordid traffic carried on with secrecy:  we see the bargain made in the face of the court; the bribe is distributed with as little ceremony as if they were in a private party at the orator’s own house.  Having sold their voices, this venal crew rush forward from one tribunal to another, the distributors of fame, and the sole judges of literary merit.  The practice is, no doubt, disgraceful.  To brand it with infamy, two new terms have been invented [d], one in the Greek language, importing the venders of praise, and the other in the Latin idiom, signifying the parasites who sell their applause for a supper.  But sarcastic expressions have not been able to cure the mischief:  the applauders by profession have taken courage, and the name, which was intended as a stroke of ridicule, is now become an honourable appellation.

9.  This infamous practice rages at present with increasing violence.  The party no longer consists of freeborn citizens; our very slaves are hired.  Even before they arrive at full age, we see them distributing the rewards of eloquence.  Without attending to what is said, and without sense enough to understand, they are sure to crowd the courts of justice, whenever a raw young man, stung with the love of fame, but without talents to deserve it, obtrudes himself in the character of an advocate.  The hall resounds with acclamations, or rather with a kind of bellowing; for I know not by what term to express that savage uproar, which would disgrace a theatre.

Upon the whole, when I consider these infamous practices, which have brought so much dishonour upon a liberal profession, I am far from wondering that you, Maternus, judged it time to sound your retreat.  When you could no longer attend with honour, you did well, my friend, to devote yourself entirely to the muses.  And now, since you are to close the debate, permit me to request, that, besides unfolding the causes of corrupt eloquence, you will fairly tell us, whether you entertain any hopes of better times, and, if you do, by what means a reformation may be accomplished.