[4] At the age of nineteen he made his first speech at the bar and shortly afterwards successfully defended Nicomedes III or IV of Bithynia, one of Rome's dependants in the East, who had been deprived of his throne by his brother.
Such men were sure to find themselves brought before a friendly, not to say a corrupt, tribunal, and Hortensius, according to Cicero[6] was not ashamed to avail himself of this advantage.
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).
In 50, the year of his death, he successfully defended Appius Claudius Pulcher when accused of treason and corrupt practices by Publius Cornelius Dolabella, afterwards Cicero's son-in-law.
[5][11] His son Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, a friend of the poet Catullus, was granted the governorship of Macedonia in 44 by Julius Caesar, before switching allegiance to Brutus and perishing after the debacle of the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC.
[5] He wrote a treatise on general questions of oratory, erotic poems,[18] and an Annales, which gained him considerable reputation as a historian.
[19] Hortensius' oratory gave him such vast wealth that he was able to spend his money gratuitously on splendid villas, parks, fish-ponds, costly entertainments, wine, pictures, and other works of art.
St. Augustine wrote in his Confessions that this work left an impression upon him and moved him to embrace philosophy, and ultimately convert to Christianity.
Though he criticises him at various points,[23] Cicero's respect for Hortensius is evident throughout, and he frequently mourns his rival's death: 'I grieved to have lost in him not, as some may have thought, a rival jealous of my forensic reputation, but rather a friend, and a fellow worker in the same field of glorious endeavour ... each of us was helped by the other with exchange of suggestions, admonitions, and friendly offices'.