Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "PALANTION Ancient city ROME" .
PALANTION (Ancient city) ROME
Q. Hortensius, L.F., the orator, born in B. C. 114, eight years before Cicero, the same year that L.
Crassus made his famous speech for the Vestal Licinia (Cic. Brut. 64, 94). At
the early age of nineteen he appeared in the forum, and his first speech gained
the applause of tile consuls, L. Crassus and Q. Scaevola, the former the greatest
orator, the latter the first jurist of the day. Crassus also heard his second
speech for Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, who had been expelled by his brother Chrestus.
His client was restored (Cic. de Orat. iii. 61). By these speeches Hortensius
at once rose to eminence as an advocate. Q. Hortensius, says Cicero, admodum adolescentis
ingenium simul spectatum et probatum est (Brut. 64). But his forensic pursuits
were soon interrupted by the Social War, in which he was obliged to serve two
campaigns (B. C. 91, 90), in the first as a legionary, in the second as tribunus
militum (Brut. 89). In the year 86 B. C. he defended young Cn. Pompeius, who was
accused of having embezzled some of the public booty taken at Asculum in the course
of the war (Brut. 64). But, for the most part, the courts were silent during the
anarchy which followed the Marian massacres, up to the return of Sulla, B. C.
83. But these troubles, though they checked the young orator in his career, left
him complete master of the courts--rex judiciorum,-- as Cicero calls him (Divin.
in Q. Caecil. 7). For Crassus had died before the landing of Marius ; Antonius,
Catulus, and others fell victims in the massacres; and Cotta, who survived, yielded
the first place to his younger rival. Hortensius, therefore, began his brilliant
professional cancer anew, and was carried along on the top of tile wave till he
met a more powerful than himself in Cicero. Henceforth he confined himself to
civil life, and was wont to boast in his old age that he had never borne arms
in any domestic strife (Cic. ad Fam. ii. 16). He attached himself closely to the
dominant Sullane or aristocratic party, and his chief professional labours were
in defending men of this party, when accused of mal-adminstration and extortion
in their provinees, or of bribery and the like in canvaissilng for public honlours.
His constant success, partly due to his own eloquence, readiness, and skill (of
which we shall say somewhat hereafter, was yet in great measure due to circumstances.
The judices at that time were all taken form the senatorial order, i. e. from
the same party with those who were arraigned before them, and the presiding praetor
was of the same party. Moreover, the accusers were for the most part young men,
of ability indeed and ambition, but [p. 526] quite unequal to cope with the experience
and eloquence of Hortensius. Nor did lie neglect baser methods to ensure success.
Part of the plundered money, which he was engaged to secure to his clients, was
unscrupulously expended in corrupting the judices; those who accepted the bribes
receiving marked ballots to prevent their playing false (Cic. Divin. in Q. Caecil.
7). It is true this statement rests chiefly on the authority of a rival advocate.
But Cicero would hardly have dared to make it so broadly in open court, with his
opponent before him, unless he had good warrant for its truth. Turius, or Furins,
mentioned by Horace (Scrm. ii. 1. 49), is said to have been one of the judices
corrupted by Hortensius.
This domination over the courts continued up to about the year B.
C. 70, when Hortensius was retained by Verres against Cicero. Cicero had come
to Rome from Athens in B. C. 81, and first met Hortensius as the advocate of P.
Quinctius. Cicero's speech is extant, and not the least interesting part is that
in which he describes and admits the extraordinary gifts of his future rival (pro
Quinct. 1, 2, 22, 24, 26). But Cicero again left Rome, and did not finally settle
there till B. C. 74, about three years before the Verrine affair came on.
Meantime, Hortensius had begun his course of civil honours. He was
quaestor in B. C. 81, and Cicero himself bears witness to the integrity with which
his accounts were kept (in Verr. i. 14, 39). Soon after he defended M. Canuleius
(Brut. 92); Cn. Dolabella, when accused of extortion in Cilicia by M. Scaurus;
another Cn. Dolabella, arraigned by Caesar for like offences in Macedonia. In
B. C. 75 he was aediie, Cotta the orator being consul, and Cicero quaestor in
Sicily (Brut. 92). The games and shows he exhibited as aedile were long remembered
for their extaordinary splendour (Cic. de )Off. ii. 16); but great part of this
splendour was the loan of those noble clients, whose robberies he had so successfully
excused (Cic. in Verr. i. 19, 22; Ascon. ad. l.). In B. C. 72 he was praetor urbanus,
and had the task of trying those delinquents whom he had hitherto defended. In
B. C. 69 he reached the summit of civic ambition, being consul for that year with
Q. Caecilius Metellus. After his consulship the province of Crete feii to him
by lot, but he resigned it in favour of his colleague.
It was in the year before his consulship, after he was designated,
that the prosecution of Verres commenced. Cicero was then aedile-elect, though
Hortensius and his party had endeavoured to prevent his election, and another
Metellus praetorelect ; so that, had the cause been put off till the next year,
Cicero would have had the weight of consular and praetorian authority against
him. The skill and activity by which he baffled the schemes of his opponents will
be found under his life. Suffice it to say here, that the issue of this contest
was to dethrone Hortensius from the seat which had been already tottering, and
to establish his rival, the despised provincial of Arpinum, as the first orator
and advocate of the Roman forum. No doubt the victory was complete, though here,
as in all the contests between the two orators, the remark of Quintilian is worth
noticing, viz. that we have only Cicero's own speeches, and have small means of
judging what the case on the other side was (Instit. x. 1). It is true also that
Verres was backed by all the power of the Sullane aristocracy. But this party
had been much weakened by the measures passed by Pompey in his consulship with
Crassus in the year before (B. C. 70). Especially, the Aemilian law, which transferred
the judicial power from the senators to the senators, equites, and tribune aerarii
conjointly, must have very much weakened the influence of Hortensius and his party.
(Ascon. and Cic. in Pison.).
After his consulship, Hortensius took a leading part in supporting
the optimates against the rising power of Pompey. He opposed the Gabinian law,
which invested that great commander with absolute power on the Mediterranean,
in order to put down the pirates of Cilicia (B. C. 67); and the Manilian, by which
the conduct of the war against Mithridates was transferred from Lucullus (of the
Sullane party) to Pompeius (B. C. 66). In favour of the latter, Cicero made his
first political speech.
In the memorable year B. C. 63 Cicero was unanimously elected consul.
He had already become estranged from the popular party, with whom he had hitherto
acted. The intrigues of Caesar and Crassus, who supported his opponents C. Antonius
and the notorious Catiline, touched him personally; and he found it his duty as
consul to oppose the turbulent measures of the popular leaders, such as the agrarian
law of Rullus. Above all, the conspiracy of Catiline, to which Crassus was suspected
of being privy, forced him to combine with the senate for the safety of the state.
He thus came to act with the Sullane nobility, and Hortensius no longer appears
as his rival. We first find them pleading together for C. Rabirins, an old senator,
who was indicted for the murder of C. Saturninus, tribune of the plebs in the
times of Sulla. They both appeared as counsel for L. Muraena, when accused of
bribery in canvassing for the consulship by Sulpicius and Cato; and again for
P. Sulla, accused as an accomplice of Catiline. On all these occasions Hortensius
allowed Cicero to speak last--a manifest admission of his former rival's superiority.
And that this was the general opinion appears from the fact, that M. Piso (consul
in 61), in calling over the senate, named Cicero second, and Hortensius only fourth.
About the same time we find Cicero, in a letter to their mutual friend Atticus,
calling him "noster Hortensius" (ad Att. i. 14).
The last active part which Hortensius took in public life was in the
debates of the senate in the prosecution of the infamous Clodius for his offence
against the Bona Dea. Fearing delay, he supported the amendment of Fufius, that
Clodius should be tried before the ordinary judices, instead of before a court
selected by the praetor. Cicero condemns his conduct in strong terms (ad Att.
i. 16; cf. 14), and seems to have considered the success of this amendment as
the chief cause of Clodius's acquittal.In the subsequent quarrels between Milo
and Clodius, Hortensius showed such zeal for the former, that he was nearly being
murdered by the hired ruffians of Clodius (Cic. pro Milon. 14).
In B. C. 61 Pompey returned victorious from the Mithridatic war. He
found he could no longer command a party of his own. He must side with one of
the two factions which had been fully formed during his absence in the East--the
old party of the optimates and the new popular party, led by Caesar and Crassus,
who used Clodius [p. 527] as their instrument. Hence followed (ill B. C. 60) the
coalition of Pompey with Caesar and Crassus (erroneously called the first triumvirate).
Hortensius now drew back from public life, seeing probably that his own party
must yield to the arts and power of the coalition, and yet not choosing to forsake
it. From this time to his death (in B. C. 50) he confined himself to his advocate's
duties. He defended Flaccus, accused of extortion in Asia, jointly with Cicero,
and took occasion to extol the acts of the latter in his consulship (ad Att. ii.
25). He also pleaded the cause of P. Lentulus Spinther, against whom Pompey had
promoted an accusation for his conduct respecting Ptolemy Auletes, though Cicero,
fearing a second banishment, declined the office (ad Fam. i. 1, ii. 1). He joined
Cicero again iN the defence of Sextius, and again allowed him to speak last (pro
Sext. ii. 6). When the latter was in his province (B. C. 51), Hortensius defended
his own nephew, M. Valerius Messalla, who was accused of bribery in canvassing
for the consulship. He was, as usual, successful; but the case was so flagrant,
that, next day, when Hortensius entered the theatre of Curio, he was received
with a round of hisses -a thing mainly remarkable, because it was the first time
lie had suffered any thing of the kind (ad Fam. viii. 2). In the beginning of
April, B. C. 50, he appeared for the last time, with his wonted success, for App.
Claudius, accused de majestate et ambitu by Dolabella, the future sonin-law of
Cicero. He died not long after. Cicero received the news of his death at Rhodes,
as he was returning home from his province, and was deeply affected by it (ad
Att. vi. 6; comp. Brut. 1.)
In the above sketch of Hortensius's life, we have kept Cicero constantly
in view, for it is from him -his speeches and letters, and other works- that we
owe almost all our knowledge of his great rival. It may be well to recur to the
relation in which they stood to each other at different times. We have seen that
up to Cicero's consulship, in 63 B. C., they were continually opposed. professionally
and politically. After this period they usually acted together professionally
-for Hortensius retired (as we have seen) from political life in the year 60.
Hortensius, in his easy way, seems to have yielded without much struggle to Cicero;
yet the latter seems never quite to have got over jealousy for his former rival.
When he was driven into exile by Clodius (in 58), Hortensius appears to have used
his influence to procure his return; yet Cicero could not be persuaded but that
he was playing a part, and was secretly doing his utmost to keep him from Rome.
Atticus in vain endeavoured to undeceive him (Ad Q. Frat. i. 3, 4, ad Att. iii.
9). On his return, indeed, he made public acknowledgment of his error, and spoke
very handsomely of Hortensius (pro Sext. 16-19, post Redit. 13, 14), and soon
after he was named by Hortensius and Pompey to fill the place in the college of
augurs, made vacant by the death of Q. Metellus Celer (Brut. 1, Philipp. ii. 2,
13); yet, when Atticus begged him to dedicate some work to Hortensius, he evaded
the request (ad Att. iv. 6); -for the little treatise De Gloria, inscribed "Hortensius",
was not written till 45 B. C., after the death of the orator. The same feelings
recur in Cicelo's letters from his province. In his extreme anxiety to return
at the expiration of his year, he continually expresses his fears that Hortensius
is playing hint false, and working under-handle to have him detained yet longer
(ad Att. v. 17 ; comp. ib. 2. &c.). There seems to have been really no ground
for these suspicions, and we must set them down to the naturally susceptible and
irritable temper of Cicero. It must be confessed, moreover, that the conduct of
some of his great friends, Pompey in particular, had been such as to justify suspicions
of others.
The character of Hortensius was rather fitted to conciliate than to
command -to call forth regard rather than esteem. He was not, as we have seen,
at all scrupulous about the means he took to gain verdicts; but in considering
this, we must not forget the low state of Roman manners (not to speak of morals)
at this period. Personally he seems to stand above suspicion of corruption. Yet
his enormous wealth was not all well gotten; for Cicero quotes a case in which
Hortensius did not scruple to join Crassus in taking possession of the inheritance
of Minuc. Basilius, though, from the circumstances, he must have known that the
will under which he claimed was a forgery (De Offic. iii. 18; cf. Parad. vi. 1;
Val. Max. ix. 4,1). And though he was honest as quaestor, though he would not
accept a province to drain it of its riches, yet no doubt he shared the plunder
of provinces, not immediately indeed, but in the shape of large fees and presents
from the Dolabellas and other persons like Verres, whom he so often and so successfully
defended. He liked to live at Rome and his villas; he loved an easy life and a
fair fame, had little ambition, and therefore avoided all acts that might have
made him amenable to prosecution. The same easy temper, joined as it often is
with a kind heart and generous disposition, won him many friends; and perhaps
we may say that he had no enemies. He lived to a good age, little disturbed by
ill health, surrounded by all that wealth can give, alive to all his enjoyments,
with as much of active occupation as he desired, without being disturbed by the
political turbulence of his times. He died just at the time when civil war broke
out, a complete specimen of an amiable Epicurean.
His eloquence was of the florid or (as it was termed) "Asiatic" style
(Cic. Brut. 95), fitter for hearing than for reading. Yet he did write his speeches--on
occasions at least (Cic. Brut. 96 ; Val. Max. v. 9.2). His voice was soft and
musical (Brut. 88); his memory so ready and retentive, that he is said to have
been able to come out of a sale-room and repeat the auction-list backwards (Senec.
Praef. in Controv. 1). We need not refer to Cicero (Brut. 88, in Caecil. 14) to
perceive what use this must have been to him as an advocate. His action was very
elaborate, so that sneerers called him Dionysia--the name of a well-known dancer
of the day (Gell. i. 5); and the pains he bestowed in arranging the folds of his
toga have been recorded by Macrobius (Saturn. ii. 9). But in all this there must
have been a real grace and dignity, for we read that Aesopus and Roscius, the
tragedians, used to follow him into the forum to take a lesson in their own art.
Of his luxurious habits many stories are told. His house on
the Palatine was that afterwards occupied by Augustus (Suet. Aug. 72);
but this was comparatively simple and modest. In his villas no expense was spared.
One he had near Bauli, described by Cicero (Acad. Prior. ii. 3) ; a second in
the Ager Tusculanus; but the most splendid was that near Laurentum. Here he laid
up such a stock of wine, that he left 10,000 casks of Chian to his heir (Plin.
H. N xiv. 6, 17). Here he had a park fill of all sorts of animals; and it was
customary, during his sumptuous dinners, for a slave, dressed like Orpheus, to
issue from the woods with these creatures following the sound of his cithara (Varr.
R. R. iii. 13). At Bauli he had immense fish-ponds, into which the sea came :
the fish were so tame that they would feed from his land; none of them were molested,
for he used to buy for his table at Puteoli; and he was so fond of them, that
lie is said to have wept for the death of a favourite muraena (Varr. R. R. iii.
17; Plin. H. N. ix. 55). He was also very curious in trees: he is said to have
fed them with wine, and we read that he once begged Cicero to change places in
speaking, that he might perform this office for a favourite plane-tree at the
proper time (Macrob. Satrn. ii. 9). In pictures also lie must have spent large
sums, at least he gave 144,001) sesterces for a single work from the hand of Cydias
(Plin. HN. xxxv. 40, Β§ 26). It is a characteristic trait. that he came forward
from his retirement (B. C. 55) to oppose the sumptuary law of Pompey and Crassus,
and spoke so eloquently and wittily as to procure its rejection (Dion Cass. xxxix.
37). He was the first person at Rome who brought peacocks to table. (Plin. H.
N. x. 23).
He was not happy in his family. By his first wife, the daughter of
Catulus, he had one son. It was after the death of Lutatia that the curious transaction
took place by which he bought or borrowed Marcia, the wife of Cato. He is acquitted
of sensual profligacy by Plutarch (Cut. Mi. 25); though he wrote love-songs not
of the most decent description (Ov. Trist. ii. 441; Gell. xix. 9).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Q. Hortensius Hortalus, Q. F. L. N., son of the great orator, by Lutatia. His
education was probably little cared for, for Cicero attributes his profligacy
to the corrupting influence of one Salvius, a freedman (ad Att. x. 18). On his
return from his province, in B. C. 50, Cicero found him at Laodicea, living with
gladiators and other low company (ad Att. vi. 3). From the expressions in the
same place, it appears that his father had cast him off; and we learn from other
authority that he purposed to make his nephew, Messalla, his heir, to the exclusion
of this son (Val. Malx. v. 9.2). However, he came in for part, at least, of his
father's property; for we find Cicero inquiring what he was likely to offer for
sale to satisfy his creditors (ad Att. vii. 3). However, in 49, the civil war
broke out, and Hortensius seized on the opportunity to repair his ruined fortunes.
He joined Caesar in Cisalpine Gaul, and was sent on by him to occupy Ariminum;
he therefore was the man who first actually crossed the Rubicon (Plut. Caes. 32;
Suet. Jul. 31). Soon after he commanded a cruising squadron on the coast of Italy,and
received a letter from Curio, Caesar's lieutenant in Sicily, desiring him to favour
the escape of Cicero. He visited Terentia, Cicero's wife, at their Cuman villa,
and Cicero himself at his Pompeian, to assure them of his good offices (Cic. ad
Att. x. 12, 16, 17); but he did not, or perhaps could not, keep his word. (Ib.
18). His squadron joined the fleet of Dolabella a little before the battle of
Pharsalia.
In B. C. 44 he held the province of Macedonia, and Brutus was to succeed
him. After Caesar's assassination, M. Antony gave the province to his brother
Caius. Brutus, however, had already taken possession, with the assistance of Hortensius
(Cic. Phillipp. x. 6, 11). When the proscription took place, Hortensius was in
the list; and in revenge he ordered C. Antonius, who had been taken prisoner,
to be put to death. After the battle of Philippi, he was executed on the grave
of his victim.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
L. Hortensius, father of the orator, praetor of Sicily in B. C. 97, and remembered there for his just and upright conduct. (Cic. Verr. iii. 16.) He married Sempronia, daughter of C. Semnpr. Tuditanus (Cic. ad Att. xiii. 6, 30, 32).
Hortensia, a sister of the orator, wife of M. Valerius Messala. Their son nearly became heir to the orator.
Hortensia, daughter of the orator Hortensia, Q. Hortensius. She partook of his eloquence, and spoke before the triumvirs in behalf of the wealthy matrons, when these were threatened with a special tax to defray the expenses of the war against Brutus and Cassius. (Val. Max. viii. 3.3; Quintil. i. 1.6; Appian, B. C. iv. 32)
M. Hortensius Hortalus, Q. F. Q. N., grandson of the orator. In the time of Augustus he was in great poverty. The emperor gave him enough to support a senator's rank, and promoted his marriage. Under Tiberius we find him, with four children, again reduced to poverty. (Tacit. Ann. ii. 37, 38; Suet. Aug. 41; Dion Cass. liv. 17.)
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!