The Romans Flashcards
“Actually, the fact that the writers on rhetoric have presented neither their own examples nor
those of some single author, or even two, but have borrowed from all the orators and poets, is a
sign that they themselves have not believed that any one individual can be brilliant in all the
branches of style. Moreover, should any one wish to show that the art of rhetoric is of no benefit
for speaking, he might well in support employ the argument that no one man has been able to
master all the branches of rhetoric.”
Anonymous, Rhetorica ad Herennium
“There are, then, three kinds of style, called types, to which discourse, if faultless, confines itself: the first we call the Grand; the second, the Middle; the third, the Simple. The Grand type consists of a smooth and ornate arrangement of impressive words. The Middle type consists of words of a lower, yet not of the lowest and most colloquial, class of words. The Simple type is brought down even to the most current idiom of standard speech.”
Anonymous, Rhetorica ad Herennium
“But in striving to attain these styles, we must avoid falling into faulty styles closely akin to them. For instance, bordering on the Grand style, which is in itself praiseworthy, there is a style to be avoided. To call this the Swollen style will be correct.”
Anonymous, Rhetorica ad Herennium
“I have been led by reason itself to hold this opinion first and foremost, that wisdom without eloquence does too little for the good of states, but that eloquence without wisdom is generally highly disadvantageous and is never helpful. Therefore if anyone neglects the study of philosophy and moral conduct, which is the highest and most honourable of pursuits, and devotes his whole energy to the practice of oratory, his civic life is nurtured into something useless to himself and harmful to his country.”
Cicero, De Inventione
“Therefore the material of the art of rhetoric seems to me to be that which we said Aristotle approved. The parts of it, as most authorities have stated, are Invention, Arrangement, Expression, Memory, Delivery. Invention is the discovery of valid or seemingly valid arguments to render one’s cause plausible. Arrangement is the distribution of arguments thus discovered in the proper order. Expression is the fitting of the proper language to the invented matter. . .”
Cicero, De Inventione
“And then, after considering the nature of the case, when you have found out whether it is simple or complex, and you have seen whether it discusses a written document or involves general reasoning, then you must see what the question in the case is, and the excuse or reason, the point for the judge’s decision and the foundation or supporting argument. All of these should develop out of the determination of the issue.”
Cicero, De Inventione
“What could be so wonderful as when out of an infinite crowd one human being emerges who – alone or with very few others – is able to use with effect the faculty that is a natural gift to all? Or what is so pleasing to the mind and to the ear as speech distinguished and refined by wise thoughts and impressive words? Or what so powerful and so splendid as when a single man’s speech reverses popular upheavals, the scruples of jurors, or the authority of the senate?”
Cicero, De Oratore
“And in his discussions he split apart the knowledge of forming wise opinions and of speaking with distinction, two things that are, in fact, tightly linked. (His genius and his varied conversations were rendered immortal by Plato in his writings, since Socrates himself had left not a single written syllable.) This was the source of the rupture, so to speak, between the tongue and the brain, which is quite absurd, harmful, and reprehensible, and which has resulted in our having different teachers for thinking and for speaking.”
Cicero, De Oratore
“In every free nation, and most of all in communities which have attained the enjoyment of peace and tranquility, this one art has always flourished above the rest and ever reigned supreme. . . . What function again is so kingly, so worthy of the free, so generous, as to bring help to the suppliant, to raise up those that are cast down, to bestow security, to set free from peril, to maintain men in their civil rights? What to is so indispensable as to have always in you grasp weapons wherewith you can defend yourself, or challenge the wicked man, or when provoked take your revenge?”
Cicero, De Oratore
“For I am not going to speak of an art which I never learned, but of my own practice; and those very commonplaces, which I have set down in my notebook, are no traditions taught to me by some one or other, but such as have been used in actual affairs and at the Bar: and if they do not commend themselves to men of your consummate accomplishment, pray blame your own unfairness in seeking to learn of me things I did not know; and to extol my good nature in answering you with a good grace, won over by your enthusiasm, not my own discretion.”
Cicero, De Oratore
“Now the acquisition of knowledge has three varieties: Factual inference, definition, and what I might call ‘attendance.’ For when the question is what exists in something, we investigate it by means of inference . . . The essence of a particular thing, moreover, is set out by definition . . . And ‘attendance’ is at issue when we inquire what attend qualities a particular thing has . . .”
Cicero, De Oratore
“The man of eloquence whom we seek, following the suggestion of Antonius, will be one who is able to speak in court or in deliberative bodies so as to prove, to please and to sway or persuade. To prove is the first necessity, to please is charm, to sway is victory for it is the one thing of all that avails most in winning verdicts. For these three functions of the orator there are three styles, the plain style for proof, the middle style for pleasure, the vigorous style for persuasion; and in this last is summed up the entire virtue of the orator.”
Cicero, Orator
“It follows that we must seek the type and pattern of each kind – a great and arduous task, as we have often said; but we should have considered what to do when we were embarking; now we must certainly spread our sails to the wind, no matter where it may carry us. First, then, we must delineate the one whom some deem to be the only true ‘Attic’ orator. He is restrained and plain, he follows the ordinary usage, really differing more than is supposed from those who are not eloquent at all. Consequently the audience, even if they are no speakers themselves, are sure they can speak in that fashion. For that plainness of style seems easy to imitate at first thought, but when attempted nothing is more difficult.”
Cicero, Orator
“We have him now, Brutus, the man whom we are seeking, but in imagination, not in actual possession. . . . He in fact is eloquent who can discuss commonplace matters simply, lofty subjects impressively, and topics ranging between in a tempered style. You will say, ‘There never was such a man.’ I grant it; for I am arguing for my ideal, not what I have actually seen, and I return to that Platonic Ideal of which I had spoken; though we do not see it, still it is possible to grasp it with the mind. For it is not an eloquent person whom I seek, nor anything subject to death and decay, but that absolute quality, the possession of which makes a man eloquent.”
Cicero, Orator
“Rhetoric, then, (for we shall henceforth use this term without dread of sarcastic objections,) will be best divided, in my opinion, in such a manner, that we may speak first of the art, next of the artist, and then of the work. The art will be that which ought to be attained by study, and is the knowledge how to speak well. The artificer is he who has thoroughly acquired the art, that is, the orator, whose business is to speak well.” The work is what is achieved by the artificer, that is, good speaking.
Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory
