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HORTENSIUS, QUINTUS (114—50 B.C.)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 741 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HORTENSIUS, See also:QUINTUS (114—50 B.C.) , surnamed Hortalus, See also:Roman orator and See also:advocate. At the See also:age of nineteen he made his first speech at the See also:bar, and shortly afterwards successfully defended Nicomedes III. of See also:Bithynia, one of See also:Rome's dependants in the See also:East, who had been deprived of his See also:throne by his See also:brother. From that See also:time his reputation as an advocate was established. As the son-in-See also:law of Q. Lutatius See also:Catulus he was attached to the aristocratic party. During See also:Sulla's ascendancy the courts of law were under the See also:control of the See also:senate, the See also:judges being themselves senators. To this circumstance perhaps, as well as to his own merits, Hortensius may have been indebted for much of his success. Many of his clients were the See also:governors of provinces which they were accused of having plundered. Such men were sure to find themselves brought before a friendly, not to say a corrupt, tribunal, and Hortensius, according to See also:Cicero (Div. in Caecil. 7), was not ashamed to avail himself of this See also:advantage. Having served during two See also:campaigns (9o—89) in the Social See also:War, he became See also:quaestor in 81, See also:aedile in 75, See also:praetor in 72, and See also:consul in 6o. In the See also:year before his consulship he came into collision with Cicero in the See also:case of See also:Verres, and from that time his supremacy at the bar was lost.

After 63 Cicero was himself See also:

drawn towards the party to which Hortensius belonged. Consequently, in See also:political cases, the two men were often engaged on the same See also:side (e.g. in See also:defence of See also:Rabirius, See also:Murena, Publius See also:Cornelius Sulla, and See also:Milo). After See also:Pompey's return from the East in 61, Hortensius withdrew from public See also:life and devoted himself to his profession. In 5o, the year of his See also:death, he successfully defended Appius See also:Claudius Pulcher when accused of See also:treason and corrupt practices by P. Cornelius See also:Dolabella, afterwards Cicero's son-in-law. Hortensius's speeches are not extant. His See also:oratory, according to Cicero, was of the See also:Asiatic See also:style, a florid See also:rhetoric, better to hear than to read. He had a wonderfully tenacious memory (Cicero, See also:Brutus, 88, 95), and could retain every single point in his opponent's See also:argument. His See also:action was highly artificial, and his manner of folding his toga was noted by tragic actors of the See also:day (See also:Macrobius, Sat. iii. 13. 4). He also possessed a See also:fine musical See also:voice, which he could skilfully command.

The vast See also:

wealth he had accumulated he spent on splendid villas, parks, See also:fish-ponds and costly entertainments. He was the first to introduce peacocks as a table delicacy at Rome. He was a See also:great buyer of See also:wine, pictures and See also:works of See also:art. He wrote a See also:treatise on See also:general questions of oratory, erotic poems (See also:Ovid, Tristia, ii. 441), and an Annales, which gained him considerable reputation as an historian (See also:Veil. Pat. ii. 16. 3). His daughter HORTENSIA was also a successful orator. In 42 she spoke against the See also:imposition of a See also:special tax on wealthy Roman matrons with such success that See also:part of it was remitted (Quint. Instit. i. r. 6; Val.

Max. viii. 3. 3). In addition to Cicero (passim), see Dio See also:

Cassius xxxviii. i6, xxxix. 37; See also:Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 81, x. 23, xiv. 17, See also:xxxv. 40; See also:Varro, R.R. iii. 13. 17.

End of Article: HORTENSIUS, QUINTUS (114—50 B.C.)

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