JolieRouge

Hi @caldrail, Thanks for the reply. It's driving me batty, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be in relation to Cicero, or from the JC period, it would either be before or after. I haven't read too many books in that area. It would either be in Tacitus, Seneca, Dio Cassius or Livy... But I also read a few other collections of primary sources and various other stories and essays. I doubt it was in Procopius but I read that too, and Valerias Antias... I think I will order another copy of Livy because I'm almost sure it's gonna be there. It just kind of sounds like one of his side stories... I remember him having a lot of memorable episodes, but I don't make the connection. It also could have been in the Garden of Eloquence, as Peachum had a lot of examples and discussions about rhetoric... Who was the Roman Rhetoric guy, was it Quintillian or something Q... Now I wish I had made more of an effort to remember. Best, Jason

Hi Everyone, I've been trying to find the origin and details of a story I believe that I read some time ago. The specific period I don't recall, or the source. It could have been Livy or Tacitus, or a number of other books I read. I remember the basic main points of the story (but those could be confused). I am looking for any suggestions for where I might find the account of the story again. The main points of the story are these: 1. There was a war veteran of some renown who was used to rough speech. 2. He made a successful, but insult laden speech in public that led him some popularity as a speaker. 3. The public, used to flowery and contentless speech were at first refreshed by his "honesty" 4. As he continued to make speeches, his insults and careless speaking style made more enemies. 5. At some point he launched into some diatribe against the general public as well. 6. He then fell out of favor, or was possibly killed. I recall the story being presented as a cautionary tale against informal or vulgar speech. The name of the speaker, time period, or source of this story escapes me. Does anyone have an idea if I'm remembering correctly? I've used a mind-numbing number of search terms on Google, but Google tends to "curate" search results, and since most of my search history is programming and not history, the quality of results I get back is less than helpful. I no longer have any of the books in question to hand as I moved some time ago, so I can't even do a manual search through the books themselves. Any help would be greatly appreciated, even if it turns out I made up some composite story from jumbled memories... Best, Jason