"Oratiunculas," he calls them.

It would seem here that he pretends to have preserved these speeches only at the request of some admiring young friends.

Demosthenes, of course, was the "fellow-citizen," so called in badinage, because Atticus, deserting Rome, lived much at Athens.
[152] This speech, which has been lost, was addressed to the people with the view of reconciling them to a law in accordance with which the Equites were entitled to special seats in the theatre.

It was altogether successful.
[153] This, which is extant, was spoken in defence of an old man who was accused of a political homicide thirty-seven years before--of having killed, that is, Saturninus the Tribune.

Cicero was unsuccessful, but Rabirius was saved by the common subterfuge of an interposition of omens.