I found myself getting annoyed with Crassus and wanting to tell him to just get to the point. Sometimes I felt as if members of his audience were speaking to nudge him in the right direction.
One of the major parts of his monologue on eloquence dealt with three types of words that can be used for adornment: old words, new words, and metaphors. The first item of this list seemed a bit unusual to me. I'm trying to think of an instance where a somewhat antiquated word might be of use.
I think that sometimes we throw in words such as "fortwith," which doesn't sound particularly modern to emphasize something or catch attention in a certain place or to, at times, mock something.
Crassus seems to have favored metaphor.
I spent most of my day reading books 2 and 3 and found that by the end of the day, I favored book 2 over book 3, but I'm not sure that it wasn't just because I was worn out by the time I reached #3. I felt as if Antonius got to the point faster than Crassus, which, I believe might be accounted for by the plain vs. eloquent split. The difference wasn't so pronounced to me in book 1 or in the transition between book 1, read last week, and book 2, read this one.