Brutus, or On Eminent Orators Passage 301

hortensius igitur cum admodum adulescens orsus esset in foro dicere, celeriter ad maiores causas adhiberi coeptus est: et quamquam inciderat in Cottae et Sulpici aetatem, qui annis decem maiores erant, excellente tum Crasso et Antonio, dein Philippo, post Iulio, cum his ipsis dicendi gloria comparabatur. Primnum memoria tanta quantam in nullo cognovisse me arbitror, ut quae secum commentatus esset, ea sine scripto verbis eisdem redderet quibus cogitavisset. Hoc adiumento ille tanto sic utebatur ut sua et commentata et scripta et nullo referente omnia omnium adversariorum dicta meminisset.

Hortensius, then, having begun to speak in the forum while still very young, was quickly engaged in more important cases. Although he had fallen into the age of Cotta and Sulpicius, who were ten years older, and Crassus and Antonius were then preeminent, followed by Philippus and later Julius, he was compared with these very men in reputation for speaking. First, his memory was so great that I think I have known its equal in no one. What he had prepared privately, he reproduced without writing in the very words in which he had conceived it. He made such use of this great assistance that he remembered all his own prepared and written material and every statement of all his opponents without anyone prompting him.

Hortensius avait commencé à parler au forum dans sa première jeunesse et fut rapidement appelé à plaider les causes les plus importantes. Quoiqu’il fût tombé à l’époque de Cotta et de Sulpicius, ses aînés de dix ans, alors que Crassus et Antonius excellaient, puis Philippus et ensuite Julius, on le comparait à eux-mêmes pour la gloire oratoire. Tout d’abord, il avait une mémoire telle que je ne crois en avoir connu de semblable chez personne : il reproduisait sans texte écrit, dans les mêmes termes où il les avait conçus, les discours qu’il avait préparés en lui-même. Il tirait un tel parti de ce puissant secours qu’il retenait tout ce qu’il avait préparé et écrit lui-même, ainsi que toutes les paroles de tous ses adversaires, sans que personne les lui rappelât.