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Updated: May 8, 2025
The Senate were sitting in the palace, and Hortalus having set his four children before the door, fixed his eyes, now upon the statue of Hortensius, placed amongst the orators; then upon that of Augustus; and instead of speaking to the question, began on this wise: "Conscript Fathers, you see there the number and infancy of my children; not mine by my own choice, but in compliance with the advice of the Prince: such too was the splendour of my ancestors, that it merited to be perpetuated in their race; but for my own particular, who, marred by the revolution of the times, could not raise wealth, nor engage popular favour, nor cultivate the hereditary fortune of our house, the fortune of Eloquence: I deemed it sufficient if, in my slender circumstances, I lived no disgrace to myself, no burden to others.
The deified Augustus gave you money, Hortalus; but without solicitation he gave it, and on no condition that it should always be given: otherwise diligence will languish; sloth will prevail; and men having no hopes in resources of their own, no anxiety for themselves, but all securely relying on foreign relief, will become private sluggards and public burdens."
Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, the foremost representative of the Asiatic school, was then at the height of his forensic reputation.
For he is a man of astonishing whims, as you know, "tortuous and no wise ." But I stick to the rule "Follies of those in power," etc. But, by Hercules, that other friend of yours, Hortalus with what a liberal hand, with what candour, and in what ornate language has he praised me to the skies, when speaking of the prætorship of Flaccus and that incident of the Allobroges.
The picture of Marcus Hortalus, who had received from Augustus the munificent gift of a million sesterces, being in the days of Tiberius once more poor, married, with children, and seeking aid from the State for his four sons, seems to be all purely imaginary, introduced merely as a photograph from life, the feelings and conduct of Hortalus, after the treatment of his sons by Tiberius, being such a faithful reflex, as far as can be judged from his own confessions, of the feelings and conduct of Bracciolini himself after the way in which his hopes of preferment were blasted by Cardinal Beaufort.
In the progress of your reign, Caesar, these children may arrive at the honours in your gift; defend them in the meantime from want: they are the great-grandsons of Hortensius; they are the foster sons of Augustus." The inclination of the Senate was favourable; an incitement this to Tiberius the more eagerly to thwart Hortalus.
By this speech, in appearance popular, he still retained the spirit and force of the sovereignty. He likewise sustained by gratuities, the dignity of some necessitous Senators: hence it was the more wondered, that he received with haughtiness and repulse the petition of Marcus Hortalus, a young man of signal quality and manifestly poor.
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