HORTENSIUS HORTALUS, QUINTUS

born 114 BC died 50 BC Roman orator and politician, Cicero's opponent in the Verres trial. Delivering his first speech at age 19, Hortensius became a distinguished advocate. He was leader of the bar until his clash with Cicero while defending the corrupt governor Verres (70) cost him his supremacy. He became consul in 69 and later collaborated harmoniously with Cicero in a number of trials. His talents proved useful to the conservative senatorial aristocracy. Of Hortensius' speeches published in his time, virtually no fragments remain, although the subjects of 28 are known. Evidently his oratory was of the Asianic style, florid and exuberant, and his gestures accounted for much of the force of his rhetoric. Hortensius wrote Annales, an epic on the Social War (9088); a treatise on rhetoric; and love poems. He is a character in the first edition of Cicero's Academica and in the lost dialogue Hortensius.