Cicero’s De oratore imagines a conversation on eloquence among the leading Roman statesmen of the late second and early first century bce, including L. Licinius Crassus and Q. Lutatius Catulus. As is typical in his early philosophical and rhetorical works, Cicero goes to great lengths to defend his choice of subject matter, and he transfers his anxieties to his characters, who frequently reflect in a rather self-conscious manner upon the form of the dialogue itself. On the morning of the second day of their discussion, for example, Crassus voices his concern that, with their Socratic style of question-and-response, they might pick up some of the bad habits of the Greeks, who are only too willing to debate any point, any time, anywhere, ad nauseam (Cic. De or. 2.18). At this point Catulus interjects, disputing the notion that all Greeks behave in this manner: the best Greeks – by which he means politically active Greeks – confined their philosophical disputation to their free time, their otium. To strengthen his case, and to allay Crassus’ anxieties, he appeals to their surroundings; he draws particular attention to the portico of Crassus’ Tusculan villa, in which they are walking, as an especially appropriate setting for philosophical conversation (De or. 2.20):