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Often appears with: justice as a virtue · education and the training of the young · rhetoric and persuasion · demosthenes · crime and punishment · treaties, truces, and peacemaking · terentia · socrates · roman senate debate · roman rhetoric · rhetoric teachers · quintilian-style argument about audiences
Usually: detachment (4) · curiosity (3) · verse (2) · reverence (2) · argument (1) · dialogue (1) · letter or document (1) · record or table (1) · reflection (1) · crisis of belief (1)
“Here I give to be thine a fair grove, an holy, Priapus, Where thy Lampsacus holds thee in chamber seemly, Priapus;” Gaius Valerius Catullus (translated by Robinson Ellis), The Poems and Fragments of Catullus · vivid
“Terentia, therefore, as she was otherwise in her own nature neither tender-hearted nor timorous, but a woman eager for distinction, told him these things, and excited him against the conspirators.” Plutarch, Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans · observation
“so it is with the teachers of rhetoric, they might be compared with the fisherman, who, unless he baits his hook with what he knows is most appetizing to the little fish, may wait all day upon some rock, without the hope of a catch.” Petronius Arbiter, The Satyricon — Volume 01: Introduction · observation
The notes summarize key dated events in Catiline’s conspiracy, including elections, Senate actions granting powers to consuls, armed movements to Etruria, arrests of the Allobroges, speeches, condemnations, and Catiline’s death at Pistoria.
of extortion, through the agency of Clodius. He is obliged to desist from standing for the consulship, and forms the project of the first conspiracy. See Sall. Cat., c. 18. 688.--L. MANLIUS TORQUATUS, L. AURELIUS COTTA.--*Jan*. 1: Catiline's project of the first conspiracy becomes known, and he defers the execution of it to the 5th of February, when he makes an unsuccessful attempt to execute it. *July* 17: He is ac…
In Plutarch’s Demosthenes-Cicero discussion, he claims true happiness depends more on mind than birthplace, and he explains his own late study of Latin and his method of composing Parallel Lives.
escaped the pens of writers, are more faithfully preserved in the memories of men, lest his work be deficient in many things, even those which it can least dispense with. But for me, I live in a little town, where I am willing to continue, lest it should grow less; and having had no leisure, while I was in Rome and other parts of Italy, to exercise myself in the Roman language, on account of public business and of t…
Cicero’s resolve against Catiline’s plot is urged by Terentia after a miraculous flame in sacrifices, leading to senate debate where Caesar proposes confiscation and confinement instead of execution, narrowly moderated into a mixed sentence.
of audacity, while he himself, whose character for courage already did not stand very high with the multitude, would be thought guilty of the greatest cowardice and want of manliness. Whilst Cicero was doubting what course to take, a portent happened to the women in their sacrificing. For on the altar, where the fire seemed wholly extinguished, a great and bright flame issued forth from the ashes of the burnt wood;…
Pliny defends using fuller, not overly concise, speech in court, comparing Greek and Roman exemplars, discussing how oratory works on audiences, and ending by asking Cornelius Tacitus to state reasons either way.
XIV -- TO CORNELIUS TACITUS I HAVE frequent debates with a certain acquaintance of mine, a man of skill and learning, who admires nothing so much in the eloquence of the bar as conciseness. I agree with him, that where the case will admit of this precision, it may with propriety be adopted; but insist that, to leave out what is material to be mentioned,--or only briefly and cursorily to touch upon those points which…
Catullus praises Marcus Tullius Cicero as the greatest speaker, thanking him and adding that Cicero is the first among pleaders while Catullus is last among poets.
CXIV. Rightly a lordly demesne makes Firman Mentula count for Wealthy! the rich fine things, then the variety there! Game in plenty to choose, fish, field, and meadow with hunting; Only the waste exceeds strangely the quantity still. Wealthy? perhaps I grant it; if all, wealth asks for, is absent. 5 Praise the demesne? no doubt; only be needy the man. CXV. Acres thirty in all, good gras…
A critic interrupts, defending rhetorical exercises as not the teachers’ fault, and compares teachers to fishermen who tailor bait to what an audience wants to hear.
He would not permit me to declaim longer in the portico than he himself had sweat in the school, but exclaimed, "Your sentiments do not reflect the public taste, young man, and you are a lover of common sense, which is still more unusual. For that reason, I will not deceive you as to the secrets of my profession. The teachers, who must gibber with lunatics, are by no means to blame for these exercises. Unless they…
In verse, the speaker lays out an ideal rhetorical life: disciplined, frugal study; avoiding courtly and corrupt clients; learning in youth; then mastering Socrates and finally using Demosthenes’ “weapons.”
"The man who emerges with fame, from the school of stern art, Whose mind gropes for lofty ideals, to bring them to light, Must first, under rigid frugality, study his part; Nor yearn for the courts of proud princes who frown in their might: Nor scheme with the riff-raf, a client in order to dine, Nor can he with evil companions his wit drown in wine Nor sit, as a hireling, applauding an actor's grimace. But, w…