Quintus Hortensius

Politician

2024 – 2024

61

Who was Quintus Hortensius?

Quintus Hortensius Hortalus was a Roman orator and advocate.

At the age of nineteen he made his first speech at the bar, and shortly afterwards successfully defended Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, one of Rome's dependants in the East, who had been deprived of his throne by his brother. From that time his reputation as an advocate was established. As the son-in-law of Quintus Lutatius Catulus he was attached to the aristocratic party, the "optimates". During Lucius Cornelius Sulla's dictatorship the courts of law were under the control of the Senate, the judges being themselves senators.

To this circumstance perhaps, as well as to his own merits, Hortensius may have been indebted for much of his success. Many of his clients were the governors of provinces which they were accused of having plundered. Such men were sure to find themselves brought before a friendly, not to say a corrupt, tribunal, and Hortensius, according to Marcus Tullius Cicero was not ashamed to avail himself of this advantage. Having served during two campaigns in the Social War, he became quaestor in 81, aedile in 75, praetor in 72, and consul in 69. In the year before his consulship he came into collision with Cicero in the case of Gaius Verres, and from that time his supremacy at the bar was lost.

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Born
Mar 29, 2024
Died
Mar 29, 2024

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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