Note 189 — Chapter XVIII · THE COURTS AND THE ORATORS. THE GREAT BATHS. THE PUBLIC PARKS AND ENVIRONS OF ROME

“Eloquence” was looked upon as indispensable for everybody expecting any kind of a public career. Even in the army there was much speech-making prior to a pitched battle. Tacitus speaks of how an army was so utterly surprised that its general “could neither harangue his men nor draw them up in battle array”—two operations apparently equally necessary. (Tacitus, “History,” iv, 33.)