Roman Rhetoric
200BC-300AD
• Borrowing, Practicing, Teaching
• Three Leading Characters
– Cicero “The Greatest Roman Orator (10643BC)
– Quintilian “The Greatest RomanTeacher”(35100AD)
– Longinus “On the Subline”(213-273AD)
Cicero
Cicero
• Many Sources
• De Inventione “Married Wisdom and
Eloquence”
• Thought Aristotle's notion of ethos
developed in the speech only was
inadequate. What do you think?
Cicero’s 5 Rhetorical Canon
• Borrowed? Or?
• The Canon (used in teaching)
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Inventio
Dispositio
Elocutio
Pronuntiatio
Memoria
The Systems
• Stasis and Topics
• Stasis--a stopping point (power of naming)
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Fact--is it?
Definition--what is it?
Value--good or bad?
Action--do?
• Topics--common places (buildings, books,
movies)
Cicero’s De Oratore
• Three purposes of speech
– To teach
– To delight
– To persuade
• Humor
Marcus Fabius Quintilian
• The Good Man Speaking Well
• Parts of a speech
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Exordium-introduction
Narratio--facts
Confirmatio--proof
Confutatio-refutation
Peroratio-conclusion
Longinus
• On the Sublime
• Style--more than mere adornment
• The power of aesthetics
Dan on the Romans
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The power of rhetorical education
Building on those who preceded (Matt)
Order
Rhetoric has limits? (Foss)
The power of naming and speaking first
Stasis or Naming Continued
• Contingency issues--when certainty is
impossible thus the probable
• Experience--the movie “Contact”
• Copernicus and Einstein
• The Wine Class
• Our Emotions