Ciceronian Oratory

Extract

In assessing the characteristics of Cicero's oratory we are in the unfortunate position of being unable to compare him with his contemporaries and predecessors. The speeches of Hortensius and of the other famous orators of Cicero's day are lost, as are those of Crassus and Antonius, the much admired figures of his boyhood, with whom, according to the Brutus, Roman oratory first equalled Greek. Yet though we know little of the other orators of the Roman Republic, it is possible by a study of Cicero's speeches and of his oratorical writings to get a fairly good idea of his special characteristics.

A passage in the Brutus will serve as a useful introduction to a brief study of Ciceronian oratory.

[‘Before the time of Hortensius] there was no orator’, says Cicero, ‘who appeared to have studied literature more deeply than the common run of men—literature which is the fountain-head of perfect eloquence; no one who had embraced philosophy—the mother of all good deeds and good words; no one who had learnt civil law—a thing most necessary for private cases, and essential to the orator's good judgement; no one who had at his command the traditions of Rome, from which if occasion demanded he could call up most trustworthy witnesses from the dead; no one who by rapid and neat mockery of his opponent could unbend the minds of the jurymen and turn them for a while from solemnity to smiling and laughter; no one who could widen an issue and bring his speech from a limited dispute referring to a particular person or time to a general question of universal application; no one who could delight by a temporary digression from the issue, or could move the judge to anger or to tears, or in fact—which is the special quality of the orator—could turn his feelings whithersoever the occasion demanded.’