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CHAP. 20. Of Pride of Eloquence.
ELoquence is an excellent gift wheresoever it is bestowed, and for this many heathens have been famous. The Athenians exiled Thucydides their Captain General: * 1.1 but after he had written his Chroni∣cle, they called him home again, wondring at the eloquence of the man. Socrates sold one Oration that he made for twenty talents of gold. Pliny saith, that Cicero's elo∣quence was the cause that all the Tribes renounced the law Agraria, as touching the division of lands among the Commons, albeit their greatest maintenance consisted therein; he saith that he was the first that was saluted by the name of Pater pa∣triae, Father of his country; the first that de∣served triumph in his long robe, and the Laurel garland for his language, and calleth him the Father of eloquence and of the Latin tongue: * 1.2 Suetonius saith, that in eloquence Augustus Caesar was most excellent and expert; and well might he be so: for even during his wars, he saith, he read, wrote and declamed every day; he would never deliver a speech to his wife or servants, but it was pre∣meditated,