The Comparison of Demosthenes and Cicero   

These are the most memorable circumstances recorded in history of
Demosthenes and Cicero which have come to our knowledge. But omitting
an exact comparison of their respective faculties in speaking, yet
thus much seems fit to be said; that Demosthenes, to make himself
a master in rhetoric, applied all the faculties he had, natural or
acquired, wholly that way that he far surpassed in force and strength
of eloquence all his contemporaries in political and judicial speaking,
in grandeur and majesty all the panegyrical orators, and in accuracy
and science all the logicians and rhetoricians of his day; that Cicero
was highly educated, and by his diligent study became a most accomplished
general scholar in all these branches, having left behind him numerous
philosophical treatises of his own on Academic principles as, indeed,
even in his written speeches, both political and judicial, we see
him continually trying to show his learning by the way. And one may
discover the different temper of each of them in their speeches. For
Demosthenes's oratory was without all embellishment and jesting, wholly
composed for real effect and seriousness; not smelling of the lamp,
as Pytheas scoffingly said, but of the temperance, thoughtfulness,
austerity, and grave earnestness of his temper. Whereas Cicero's love
of mockery often ran him into scurrility; and in his love of laughing
away serious arguments in judicial cases by jests and facetious remarks,
with a view to the advantage of his clients, he paid too little regard
to what was decent: saying, for example, in his defence of Caelius,
that he had done no absurd thing in such plenty and affluence to indulge
himself in pleasures, it being a kind of madness not to enjoy the
things we possess, especially since the most eminent philosophers
have asserted pleasures to be the chiefest good. So also we are told
that when Cicero, being consul, undertook the defence of Murena against
Cato's prosecution, by way of bantering Cato, he made a long series
of jokes upon the absurd paradoxes, as they are called, of the Stoic
set; so that a loud laughter passing from the crowd to the judges,
Cato, with a quiet smile, said to those that sat next him, "My friends,
what an amusing consul we have."
And, indeed, Cicero was by natural temper very much disposed to mirth
and pleasantry, and always appeared with a smiling and serene countenance.
But Demosthenes had constant care and thoughtfulness in his look,
and a serious anxiety, which he seldom, if ever, laid aside; and therefore,
was accounted by his enemies, as he himself confessed, morose and
ill-mannered.
Also, it is very evident, out of their several writings, that Demosthenes
never touched upon his own praises but decently and without offence
when there was need of it and for some weightier end; but upon other
occasions modestly and sparingly. But Cicero's immeasurable boasting
of himself in his orations argues him guilty of an uncontrollable
appetite for distinction, his cry being evermore that arms should
give place to the gown, and the soldier's laurel to the tongue. And
at last we find him extolling not only his deeds and actions, but
his orations also, as well those that were only spoken, as those that
were published; as if he were engaged in a boyish trial of skill,
who should speak best, with the rhetoricians, Isocrates and Anaximenes,
not as one who could claim the task to guide and instruct the Roman
nation, the-
"Soldier full-armed, terrific to the foe."
It is necessary, indeed, for a political leader to be an able speaker;
but it is an ignoble thing for any man to admire and relish the glory
of his own eloquence. And, in this matter, Demosthenes had a more
than ordinary gravity and magnificence of mind, accounting his talent
in speaking nothing more than a mere accomplishment and matter of
practice, the success of which must depend greatly on the good-will
and candour of his hearers, and regarding those who pride themselves
on such accounts to be men of a low and petty disposition.
The power of persuading and governing the people did, indeed, equally
belong to both, so that those who had armies and camps at command