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[4]
Cicero,1 it is
true, attributes the origin of oratory to the founders
of cities and the makers of laws, who must needs
have possessed the gift of eloquence. But why he
thinks this the actual origin, I cannot understand,
since there still exist certain nomad peoples without
cities or laws, and yet members of these peoples perform the duties of ambassadors, accuse and defend,
and regard one man as a better speaker than
another.
1 de Inv. i. 2.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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