The fact that an opportunity to speak was routinely granted to only a small number of the senators present, just the senior members, means that those leading senators spoke far more frequently in the senate than they did in any other venue. The senate met on numerous occasions throughout the year, sometimes day after day in times of crisis such as in January 49 and 43 bce (Stein 1930: 62-3, 80-2). By contrast, a leading advocate like Cicero delivered speeches in only a handful of major court cases during a whole year, and politicians were only occasionally invited to address a contio, typically when some important piece of legislation was pending or when the people needed to be informed of some action taken by the senate. Junior senators, who were rarely given an opportunity to speak, must have gained valuable insight into how to make an effective senatorial speech by observing their more senior colleagues. Textbooks on oratory, as we noted above, offered little guidance. This on-the-job training - serving as understudies to a senior political figure during a phase of their upbringing (known as the tirocinium fori) - provided a valuable capstone to the education that Rome’s future leaders received from professional teachers of rhetoric (see chapter 6).
While a young, aspiring senatorial orator worked his way up the ladder of public offices, he could, of course, hone his speaking skills outside of the senate, in the courts. As early as his twenty-fifth year, Cicero made his first appearance as an advocate in a law case, delivering his Pro Quinctio in 81 bce, a good five years before his election to the quaestorship in 76. Later, in 70, when he was still a junior senator, Cicero’s stunning success in prosecuting the praetorian ex-governor Gaius Verres most likely entitled him to the reward of being permitted henceforth to speak in the senate among the praetorians - the rank of the convicted defendant (Taylor 1949: 112-13; challenged by Alexander 1985). Since, however, Cicero was the first in his family to hold public office and therefore did not inherit a network of political connections, he doubtless played quite a limited role in shaping policy in the senate during the years leading up to his consulship in 63.
World History
