ic and full of dignity which has so often availed in
raising a man to the Consulship, is able by its words to move the minds
of the Senate and the people and the judges.[162] But in such a poor
science as that of law what honor can there be? Its details are taken up
with mere words and fragments of words.[163] They forget all equity in
points of law, and stick to the mere letter."[164] He goes through a
presumed scene of chicanery, which, Consul as he was, he must have acted
before the judges and the people, no doubt to the extreme delight of
them all. At last he says, "Full as I am of business, if you raise my
wrath I will make myself a lawyer, and learn it all in three days."[165]
From these and many other passages in Cicero's writings and speeches,
and also from Quintilian, we learn that a Roman advocate was by no
means the same as an English barrister. The science which he was
supposed to have learned was simply that of telling his story in
effective language. It no doubt came to pass that he had much to do in
getting up the details of his story--what we may call the evidence--but
he looked elsewhere, to men of another profession, for his law. The
"juris consultus" or the "juris peritus" was the lawyer, and as such was
regarded as being of much less importance than the "patronus" or
advocate, who stood before the whole city and pleaded the cause. In this
trial of Murena, who was by trade a soldier, it suited Cicero to
belittle lawyers and to extol the army. When he is telling Sulpicius
that it was not by being a lawyer that a man could become Consul, he
goes on to praise the high dignity of his client's profession. "The
greatest glory is achieved by those who excel in battle. All our empire,
all our republic, is defended and made strong by them."[166] It was thus
that the advocate could speak! This comes from the man who always took
glory to himself in declaring that the "toga" was superior to helmet and
shield. He had already declared that they erred who thought that they
were going to get his own private opinion in speeches made in law
courts.[167] He knew how to defend his friend Murena, who was a soldier,
and in doing so could say very sharp things, though yet in joke, against
his friend Sulpicius, the lawyer. But in truth few men understood the
Roman law better than did Cicero.

But we must go back to that agrarian law respecting which, as he tells
us, four of his consular speeches were made. This had been broug