Quintus Hortensius

Quintus Hortensius Hortalus (114 BC – 50 BC) was a Roman Optimate, and orator. He was consul in 69 BC alongside Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus.

At the age of nineteen he made his first speech at the bar, and shortly afterwards successfully defended Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, one of Rome's dependants in the East, who had been deprived of his throne by his brother. From that time his reputation as an advocate was established. As the son-in-law of Quintus Lutatius Catulus (through marriage to Lutatia, daughter of Catulus and Servilia) he was attached to the aristocratic party, the optimates. During Lucius Cornelius Sulla's dictatorship the courts of law were under the control of the Senate, the judges being themselves senators.

To this circumstance perhaps, as well as to his own merits, Hortensius may have been indebted for much of his success. Many of his clients were the governors of provinces which they were accused of having plundered. Such men were sure to find themselves brought before a friendly, not to say a corrupt, tribunal, and Hortensius, according to Marcus Tullius Cicero was not ashamed to avail himself of this advantage. Having served during two campaigns (90-89) in the Social War, he became quaestor in 81, aedile in 75, praetor in 72, and consul in 69. In the year before his consulship he came into collision with Cicero in the case of Gaius Verres, and from that time his supremacy at the bar was lost.

After 63, Cicero gravitated towards the faction to which Hortensius belonged. Consequently, in political cases, the two men were often engaged on the same side (e.g. in defence of Gaius Rabirius, Lucius Licinius Murena, Publius Cornelius Sulla, and Titus Annius Milo). After Pompey's return from the East in 61, Hortensius withdrew from public life and devoted himself to his profession.

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