HORTE'NSIUS, QUINTUS, born B.c. 114 of an equestrian Roman family, began to plead at a very early age, and he had already attained a great reputation in his profession when Cicero made his appearance in the Forum. From that time Cicero and Hortensiva were considered as professional rivals, but they lived on friendly and even intimate terms with each other, as Cicero acknowledges in several of his writings. At the beginning of his book De Claris Oratoribus,' Cicero pays an eloquent and apparently sincere tribbte of praise to the memory of Hortensius, who was then lately dead. He styles him his friend and adviser, who often assisted him in their common career, "being not, as many imagined, a rival or detractor of his fame, but a fellow-labourer in a glorious vocation ;" and yet in some of his letters (Epist. Ili. of the let book 'Ad Quintum Fratrem ') Cicero had bitterly complained of the duplicity and ungenerous conduct of Hortensius towards him when he was obliged to quit Rome in the Clodian business. Hortenaiva went through the regular career of public offices and honours; he was made in succession qumator, mdile, praetor, and lastly consul, with Q. exciting Metellua Creticus, B.O. 69. He appears to have
acquired great wealth, which he spent liberally, and yet bequeathed an ample inheritance to his children. His villas at Tusculum, at Bauli, at Laurentum, and other places, are mentioned as splendid. He is charged by Cicero with having used bribery and other means to gain his causes, and to have received presents from his clients. Hortensius died B.C. 50, while Cicero was returning from his government of Cilicia (Epist. vi. of the 6th book 'Ad Attic= ;"Brutua,' c. 64, 94); and Cicero considers it a continuation of the good fortune which had attended him through life, that he died joist before the breaking out of the civil war, and was thus spared the grief of seeing the fall of the republic. The Orations' of Hortensius which are mentioned by Cicero and Quintilian are lost, as well as his 'Annals,' and some erotic poems which he is said to have written. Cicero ('Brutus; c. 92, 95) has given his opinion of the character of Hortensius as an orator.