ut praedulce illud genus, et puerilibus ingeniis hoc gratius, quo propius est, adament. Such was the doctrine of Quintilian.  His practice, we may be sure, was consonant to his own rules.  Under such a master the youth of Rome might be initiated in science, and formed to a just taste for eloquence and legitimate composition; but one man was not equal to the task.  The rhetoricians and pedagogues of the age preferred the novelty and meretricious ornaments of the style then in vogue.

Section XXX.

[a] This is the treatise, or history of the most eminent orators (DE CLARIS ORATORIBUS), which has been so often cited in the course of these notes.  It is also entitled BRUTUS; a work replete with the soundest criticism, and by its variety and elegance always charming.

[b] Quintus Mucius Scaevola was the great lawyer of his time.  Cicero draws a comparison between him and Crassus.  They were both engaged, on opposite sides, in a cause before the CENTUMVIRI.  Crassus proved himself the best lawyer among the orators of that day, and Scaevola the most eloquent of the lawyers. Ut eloquentium juris peritissimus Crassus; jurisperitorum eloquentissimus Scaevola putaretur. De Claris Orat. s. 145.  During the consulship of Sylla, A.U.C. 666, Cicero being then in the nineteenth year of his age, and wishing to acquire a competent knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence, attached himself to Mucius Scaevola, who did not undertake the task of instructing pupils, but, by conversing freely with all who consulted him, gave a fair opportunity to those who thirsted after knowledge. Ego autem juris civilis studio, multum operae dabam Q. Scaevolae, qui quamquam nemini se ad docendum dabat, tamen, consulentibus respondendo, studiosos audiendi docebat. De Claris Orat. s. 306.

[c] Philo was a leading philosopher of the academic school.  To avoid the fury of Mithridates, who waged a long war with the Romans, he fled from Athens, and, with some of the most eminent of his fellow-citizens, repaired to Rome.  Cicero was struck with his philosophy, and became his pupil. Cum princeps academiae Philo, cum Atheniensium optimatibus, Mithridatico bello, domo profugisset, Romamque venisset, totum ei me tradidi, admirabili quodam ad philosophiam studio concitatus. De Claris Orat. s. 306.

Cicero adds, that he gave board and lodging, at his own house, to Diodotus the stoic, and, under that master, employed himself in various branches of literature, but particularly in the study of logic, which may be considered as a mode of eloquence, contracted, close, and nervous. Eram cum stoico Diodoto:  qui cum habitavisset apud me, mecumque vixisset, nuper est domi meae mortuus.  A quo, cum in aliis rebus, tum studiosissime in dialectica exercebar, quae quasi contracta et adstricta eloquentia putanda est. De Claris Orat. s. 309.