Letter 1

? 140–143 A.D. to his own Caesar. . . . . unless speech is graced by dignity of language, it becomes downright impudent and indecent. In fine you too, when you have had to speak in the Senate or harangue the people, have never used a far-fetched word, never an unintelligible or unusual figure, as knowing that a Caesar's eloquence should be like the clarion not like the clarionet, in which there is less resonance and more difficulty.