If there is any natural ability in me, O judges,—and I know how slight that is; or if I have
 any practice as a speaker,—and in that line I do not deny that I have some experience; or if I
 have any method in my oratory, drawn from my study of the liberal sciences, and from that
 careful training to which I admit that at no part of my life have I ever been disinclined;
 certainly, of all those qualities, this Aulus Licinius is entitled to be among the first to
 claim the benefit from me as his peculiar right. For as far as ever my mind can look back upon
 the space of time that is past, and recall the memory of its earliest youth, tracing my life
 from that starting-point, I see that Archias was the principal cause of my undertaking, and the
 principal means of my mastering, those studies. And if this voice of mine, formed by his
 encouragement and his precepts, has at times been the instrument of safety to others,
 undoubtedly we ought, as far as lies in our power, to help and save the very man from whom we
 have received that gift which has enabled us to bring help to many and salvation to some.
 And lest any one should, perchance, marvel at this being said
 by me, as the chief of his ability consists in something else, and not in this system and
 practice of eloquence, he must be told that even we ourselves have never been wholly devoted to
 this study. In truth, all the arts which concern the civilising and humanising of men, have some
 link which binds them together, and are, as it were, connected by some relationship to one
 another. And, that it may not appear marvellous to any one of you, that I, in a formal proceeding like
 this, and in a regular court of justice, when an action is being tried before a praetor of the
 Roman people, a most eminent man, and before most impartial judges, before such an assembly and
 multitude of people as I see around me, employ this style of speaking, which is at variance, not
 only with the ordinary usages of courts of justice, but with the general style of forensic
 pleading; I entreat you in this cause to grant me this indulgence, suitable to this defendant,
 and as I trust not disagreeable to you,—the indulgence, namely, of allowing me, when speaking in
 defence of a most sublime poet and most learned man, before this concourse of highly-educated
 citizens, before this most polite and accomplished assembly, and before such a praetor as him
 who is presiding at this trial, to enlarge with a little more freedom than usual on the study of
 polite literature and refined arts, and, speaking in the character of such a man as that, who,
 owing to the tranquillity of his life and the studies to which he has devoted himself, has but
 little experience of the dangers of a court of justice, to employ a new and unusual style of
 oratory. And if I feel that that indulgence is given and
 allowed me by you, I will soon cause you to think that this Aulus Licinius is a man who not
 only, now that he is a citizen, does not deserve to be expunged from the list of citizens, but
 that he is worthy, even if he were not one, of being now made a citizen. 
 For when first Archias grew out of childhood, and out of the studies of those arts by which
 young boys are gradually trained and refined, he devoted himself to the study of writing. First
 of all at Antioch, (for he was born there, and was of high rank there,) formerly an illustrious
 and wealthy city, and the seat of learned men and of liberal sciences; and there it was his lot
 speedily to show himself superior to all in ability and credit. Afterwards, in the other parts
 of Asia, and over all Greece, his arrival was so talked of wherever he came, that the anxiety
 with which he was expected was even greater than the fame of his genius;—but the admiration
 which he excited when he had arrived, exceeded even the anxiety with which he was expected.
 Italy was at that time full of Greek science and of Greek
 systems, and these studies were at that time cultivated in Latium with greater zeal than they
 now are in the same towns; and here too at Rome, on account of the tranquil state of the
 republic at that time, they were far from neglected. Therefore, the people of Tarentum, and
 Rhegium, and Neapolis, presented him with the freedom of the city and with other gifts; and all
 men who were capable of judging of genius thought him deserving of their acquaintance and
 hospitality. When, from this great celebrity of his, he had become known to us though absent, he
 came to Rome, in the consulship of Marius and Catulus. It was his lot to have those men as his
 first consuls, the one of whom could supply him with the most illustrious achievements to write
 about, the other could give him, not only exploits to celebrate, but his ears and judicious
 attention. Immediately the Luculli, though Archias was as yet but a youth, The Latin is praetextus . Before he had exchanged the praetexta for the toga virilis . It
 has generally been thought that the age at which this exchange was made was seventeen, but
 Professor Long, the highest possible authority on all subjects of Latin literature, and
 especially on Roman law, says, (Smith, Dict. Ant V. Impubes ,)
 “The toga virilis was assumed at the Liberalia in the month of March; and though no age appears to have been positively
 fixed for the ceremony, it probably took place, as a general rule, on the feast which next
 followed the completion of the fourteenth year, though it is certain that the completion of the
 fourteenth year was not always the time observed.” Even supposing Archias to have been
 seventeen, it appears rather an early age for him to have established such a reputation as
 Cicero speaks of, and perhaps, as not being at that time a Roman citizen, he probably did not
 wear the praetexta at all; the expression is not to be taken
 literally, but we are merely to understand generally that he was quite a young man. 
 received him in their house. But it was not only to his genius and his learning,
 but also to his natural disposition and virtue, that it must be attributed that the house which
 was the first to be opened to him in his youth, is also the one in which he lives most
 familiarly in his old age.