Quintilian's Ideal Orator

Quintilian was the utimate authority on creating the perfect orator. The first essential for such a one is that he should be a good man. And consequently we demand of him not merely the possession of exceptional gifts of speech, but of all the excellences of character as well. Once more we find a tall order for the ideal citizen. But skills are not placed above learning and moral rectitude. Character still helps to form the liberal mind. One can become intellectually powerful, of course, without right habits. But what good is that the object of the ancients was not a programmable, ratiocinative machine? It was the cultured man or woman. This roman