His orations were
admired for two qualities, which are seldom found together, strength and
elegance: Cicero ranks him among the greatest orators that Rome ever
bred; and Quintilian says, that he spoke with the same force with which
he fought; and if he had devoted himself to the bar, would have been the
only man capable of rivalling Cicero. Nor was he a master only of the
politer arts; but conversant also with the most abstruse and critical
parts of learning; and, among other works which he published, addressed
two books to Cicero on the analogy of language, or the art of speaking
and writing correctly. He was a most liberal patron of wit and learning,
wheresoever they were found; and out of his love of those talents, would
readily pardon those who had employed them against himself; rightly
judging, that by making such men his friends, he should draw praises
from the same fountain from which he had been aspersed. His capital
passions were ambition and love of pleasure, which he indulged in their
turns to the greatest excess; yet the first was always predominant--to
which he could easily sacrifice all the charms of the second, and draw
pleasure even from toils and dangers, when they ministered to his glory.
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