De Oratore


De Oratore is a dialogue written by Cicero in 55 BC. It is set in 91 BC, when Lucius Licinius Crassus dies, just before the Social War and the civil war between Marius and Sulla, during which Marcus Antonius, the other great orator of this dialogue, dies. During this year, the author faces a difficult political situation: after his return from exile in Dyrrachium, his house was destroyed by the gangs of Clodius in a time when violence was common. This was intertwined with the street politics of Rome.
Amidst the moral and political decadence of the state, Cicero wrote De Oratore to describe the ideal orator and imagine him as a moral guide of the state. He did not intend De Oratore as merely a treatise on rhetoric, but went beyond mere technique to make several references to philosophical principles. Cicero believed that the power of persuasion—the ability to verbally manipulate opinion in crucial political decisions—was a key issue and that in the hands of an unprincipled orator, this power would endanger the entire community.
As a consequence, moral principles can be taken either by the examples of noble men of the past or by the great Greek philosophers, who provided ethical ways to be followed in their teaching and their works.
The perfect orator shall be not merely a skilled speaker without moral principles, but both an expert of rhetorical technique and a man of wide knowledge in law, history, and ethical principles.
De Oratore is an exposition of issues, techniques, and divisions in rhetoric; it is also a parade of examples for several of them and it makes continuous references to philosophical concepts to be merged for a perfect result.

Choice of the historical background of the dialogue

At the time when Cicero wrote the dialogue, the crisis of the state concerned everyone. The dialogue deliberately clashes with the quiet atmosphere of the villa in Tusculum. Cicero tries to reproduce the feeling of the final peaceful days in the old Roman republic.
Despite De Oratore being a discourse on rhetoric, Cicero has the original idea of inspiring himself to Plato's Dialogues, replacing the streets and squares of Athens with a nice garden of a country villa of a noble Roman aristocrat.
With this fanciful device, he avoided the arid explanation of rhetoric rules and devices. The work contains the second known description of the method of loci, a mnemonic technique.

Book I

  • The first of three books addressed to Cicero's brother Quintus.

    Introduction

  • Cicero begins his book by addressing this as a conversation to his brother. He continues on reflecting about so little time left in his life to be dedicated to noble studies.
Unfortunately, the deep crisis of the state has wasted away his best years.

Education of the orator

  • Cicero explains that he wants to write something more refined and mature than what he had previously published in his younger and more immature days in his treatise De Inventione.

    Several eminent men in all fields, except oratory

  • Cicero questions why, despite the fact that many people have exceptional abilities, there are so few exceptional orators.
Many are the examples of war leaders, and will continue to be throughout history, but only a handful of great orators.
  • Countless men have become eminent in philosophy, because they have studied the matter thoroughly, either by scientific investigation or using dialectic methods.
Each philosopher has become excellent in his individual field, which includes oratory.
Nevertheless, the study of oratory has attracted the smallest number of distinguished men, even less than poetry.
Cicero finds this amazing, as the other arts are usually found in hidden or remote sources;
on the contrary, all of oratory is public and in plain view to mankind, making it easier to learn.

Oratory is an attractive but difficult study

  • Cicero claims that in Athens, "where the supreme power of oratory was both invented and perfected," no other art study has a more vigorous life than the art of speaking.
After Roman peace had been established, it seemed as though everyone wanted to begin learning the eloquence of oral rhetoric.
After first trying rhetoric without training or rules, using only natural skill, young orators listened and learned from Greek orators and teachers, and soon were much more enthusiastic for eloquence.
Young orators learned, through practice, the importance of variety and frequency of speech.
In the end, orators were awarded with popularity, wealth, and reputation.
  • But Cicero warns that oratory fits into more arts and areas of study than people might think.
This is the reason why this particular subject is such a difficult one to pursue.
  • Students of oratory must have a knowledge of many matters to have successful rhetoric.
  • They must also form a certain style through word choice and arrangement. Students must also learn to understand human emotion so as to appeal to their audience.
This means that the student must, through his style, bring in humor and charm—as well as the readiness to deliver and respond to an attack.
  • Moreover, a student must have a significant capacity for memory—they must remember complete histories of the past, as well as of the law.
  • Cicero reminds us of another difficult skill required for a good orator: a speaker must deliver with control—using gestures, playing and expressing with features, and changing the intonation of the voice.
In summary, oratory is a combination of many things, and to succeed in maintaining all of these qualities is a great achievement.
This section marks Cicero's standard canons for the rhetorical composing process.

Responsibility of the orator; argument of the work

  • Orators must have a knowledge in all important subjects and arts. Without this, his speech would be empty, without beauty and fullness.
The term "orator" in itself holds a responsibility for the person to profess eloquence, in such a way that he should be able to treat every subject with distinction and knowledge.
Cicero acknowledges that this is a practically impossible task, nevertheless it is at least a moral duty for the orator.
The Greeks, after dividing the arts, paid more attention to the portion of oratory that is concerned with the law, courts, and debate, and therefore left these subjects for orators in Rome.
Indeed, all that the Greeks have written in their treaties of eloquence or taught by the masters thereof, but Cicero prefers to report the moral authority of these Roman orators.
Cicero announces that he will not expose a series of prescriptions but some principles, that he learnt to have been discussed once by excellent Roman orators.

Date, scene, and persons

Cicero exposes a dialogue, reported to him by Cotta, among a group of excellent political men and orators, who came together to discuss the crisis and general decline of politics. They met in the garden of Lucius Licinius Crassus' villa in Tusculum, during the tribunate of Marcus Livius Drusus. Thereto also gathered Lucius Licinius Crassus, Quintus Mucius Scaevola, Marcus Antonius, Gaius Aurelius Cotta and Publius Sulpicius Rufus. One member, Scaevola, wants to imitate Socrates as he appears in Plato's Phaedrus. Crassus replies that, instead, they will find a better solution, and calls for cushions so that this group can discuss it more comfortably.

Thesis: the importance of oratory to society and the state

Crassus states that oratory is one of the greatest accomplishments that a nation can have.
He extols the power that oratory can give to a person, including the ability to maintain personal rights, words to defend oneself, and the ability to revenge oneself on a wicked person.
The ability to converse is what gives mankind our advantage over other animals and nature. It is what creates civilization. Since speech is so important, why should we not use it to the benefit of oneself, other individuals, and even the entire State?
  • Thesis challenged
Scaevola agrees with Crassus's points except for two.
Scaevola does not feel that orators are what created social communities and he questions the superiority of the orator if there were no assemblies, courts, etc.
It was good decision making and laws that formed society, not eloquence. Was Romulus an orator? Scaevola says that there are more examples of damage done by orators than good, and he could cite many instances.
There are other factors of civilization that are more important than orator: ancient ordinances, traditions, augury, religious rites and laws, private individual laws.
Had Scaevola not been in Crassus's domain, Scaevola would take Crassus to court and argue over his assertions, a place where oratory belongs.
Courts, assemblies and the Senate are where oratory should remain, and Crassus should not extend the scope of oratory beyond these places. That is too sweeping for the profession of oratory.
  • Reply to challenge
Crassus replies that he has heard Scaevola's views before, in many works including Plato's Gorgias. However, he does not agree with their viewpoint. In respects to Gorgias, Crassus reminds that, while Plato was making fun of orators, Plato himself was the ultimate orator. If the orator was nothing more than a speaker without the knowledge of oratory, how is it possible that the most revered people are skilled orators? The best speakers are those who have a certain "style", which is lost, if the speaker does not comprehend the subject matter on which he is speaking.

Rhetoric is a science

Crassus says he does not borrow from Aristotle or Theophrastus their theories regarding the orator. For while the schools of Philosophy claim that rhetoric and other arts belong to them, the science of oratory which adds "style," belong to its own science.
Lycurgus, Solon were certainly more qualified about laws, war, peace, allies, taxes, civil right than Hyperides or Demosthenes, greater in the art of speaking in public.
Similarly in Rome, the decemviri legibus scribundis were more expert in right than Servius Galba and Gaius Lelius, excellent Roman orators.
Nevertheless, Crassus maintains his opinion that "oratorem plenum atque perfectum esse eum, qui de omnibus rebus possit copiose varieque dicere"..