Flattery is a way of speaking in which a person is praised insincerely in order to gratify their vanity, often with the motive of getting some sort of reward or benefit from that person. It was expected of professional orators to deliver a particular kind of speech (called an encomium) in which they praised their hearers.1,2
One ancient writer gives expression to the thinking of a flatterer with these words:
And when I catch sight of a man who is rich and thick, I at once get my hooks into him. If this moneybags [i.e. this person with lots of money] happens to say anything, I praise him vehemently and express my amazement, pretending to find delight in his words.
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5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed God is witness.