Brutus, or On Eminent Orators Passage 202

sed cavenda est presso illi oratori inopia et ieiunitas, amplo autem inflatum et corruptum orationis genus. Inveniebat igitur acute Cotta, dicebat pure ac solute; et ut ad infirmitatem laterum perscienter contentionem omnem remiserat, sic ad virium imbecillitatem dicendi accommodabat genus. Nihil erat in eius oratione nisi sincerum, nihil nisi siccum atque sanum; illudque maximum, quod cum contentione orationis flectere animos iudicum vix posset nec omnino eo genere diceret , tractando tamen impellebat ut idem facerent a se commoti quod a Sulpicio concitati.

But the compact orator must guard against poverty and dryness, and the expansive one against an inflated and corrupt style. Cotta, then, found arguments acutely and spoke purely and fluently. Just as he had very wisely relaxed every vocal exertion to accommodate the weakness of his lungs, so he adapted his style of speaking to his physical frailty. There was nothing in his speech that was not genuine, nothing that was not spare and sound. Most important of all, although he could scarcely bend the judges' minds by the force of his speech and did not speak in that style at all, by gently handling them he nevertheless drove them to do, when moved by him, the same thing they did when aroused by Sulpicius.

Mais l’orateur concis doit éviter la pauvreté et la sécheresse, et l’orateur ample, un style boursouflé et corrompu. Cotta trouvait donc ses idées avec pénétration et parlait avec pureté et aisance. De même qu’il avait très habilement renoncé à tout effort de voix pour ménager la faiblesse de sa poitrine, il adaptait son genre oratoire à l’insuffisance de ses forces. Rien dans son discours qui ne fût pur, rien qui ne fût sobre et sain. Surtout, bien qu’il pût à peine fléchir l’âme des juges par la tension du discours et qu’il ne parlât pas du tout dans ce genre, il les poussait pourtant, en les maniant, à faire sous son influence ce qu’ils faisaient sous l’impulsion de Sulpicius.