I will not say you threw away your time in studying law, but it was not thus you made yourself worthy of the Consulship.[161] That power of eloquence, majestic 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.