person
Marcus Cornelius Cethegus
M. Cornelius Cethegus
also: M. Cornelius Cethegus, Cethegus, Cornelius Cethegus Marcus
Consul of 204 BC, the earliest Roman of whom surviving testimony (Ennius, Annales bk. 9) records that he was eloquent and so reckoned; Ennius called him 'the marrow of Persuasion' and 'the chosen flower of the people.' Cicero (Brutus 57-61) treats him as the first datable Latin orator.