others, and always ready to be subservient to their honour, or to ward off danger.  For, by that assiduity, Arrius raised himself from a low beginning to wealth and honours, and was even ranked in the number of orators, though void of learning, and without genius, or abilities. Loco infimo natus, et honores, et pecuniam, et gratiam consecutus, etiam in patronorum, sine doctrina, sine ingenio, aliquem numerum pervenerat.  De Claris Orat. s. 243.  FURNIUS may be supposed, not without probability, to be the person with whom Cicero corresponded. Epist. ad Familiares, lib. x. ep. 25, 26.  With regard to Terrianus we are left in the dark.  The commentators offer various conjectures; but conjecture is often a specious amusement; the ingenious folly of men, who take pains to bewilder themselves, and reason only to shew their useless learning.

[b] The puny orators are said to be in an infirmary, like sickly men, who were nothing but skin and bone.  These, says Cicero, were admirers of the Attic manner; but it were to be wished that they had the wholesome blood, not merely the bones, of their favourite declaimers. Attico genere dicendi se gaudere dicunt; atqui utinam imitarentur nec ossa solum, sed etiam et sanguinem. Cicero De Claris Oratoribus.

[c] What is here said of Calvus is not confirmed by the judgement of Quintilian.  See s. xvii. note [c].  His orations, which were extant at the time of this Dialogue, are now totally lost.

[d] For Quintilian’s opinion of Caelius, see s. xvii. note [c].

[e] Here again Quintilian, that candid and able judge, has given a different opinion.  See s. xvii. note [b].  It may be proper to add the testimony of Velleius Paterculus.  Caesar, he says, had an elevation of soul, that towered above humanity, and was almost incredible; the rapid progress of his wars, his firmness in the hour of danger, and the grandeur of his vast conceptions, bore a near affinity to Alexander, but to Alexander neither drunk, nor mad with passion. Animo super humanam et naturam, et fidem evectus, celeritate bellandi, patientia periculorum, magnitudine cogitationum; magno illi Alexandro, sed sobrio neque iracundo, simillimus.  Vel.  Patercul. lib. ii. s. 41.  Even Cicero tells us, that, of all the eminent orators, he was the person who spoke the Latin language in the greatest purity, and arrived at that consummate perfection by study, by diligent application, and his thorough knowledge of all polite literature. Illum omnium fere oratorum Latine loqui elegantissime:  ut esset perfecta illa bene loquendi laus, multis litteris, et iis quidem reconditis et exquisitis, summoque studio et diligentia est consecutus. De Claris Orat. s. 252.

[f] Caesar’s speech for Decius the Samnite, and all his other productions (except the Commentaries), are totally lost.