“On the Ideal Orator” by Cicero

[Original Latin Title: De Oratore] Eloquence Forms a Unity For since all discourse is made up of content and words, the words cannot have any basis if you withdraw the content, and the content will remain in the dark if you remove the words. All the universe above and below us is a unity and is bound together by a single, natural force and harmony. For there is nothing in […]

Read more

“Brutus, Orator” by Cicero

“As reason is the glory of man, so the lamp of reason is eloquence.” The Origin and History of Oratory In “Brutus“, Cicero traces the origin and history of oratory in ancient Greece and Rome, and provides a concise and astute critique of various classes of individual orators, ranking their achievements in the five components of rhetoric (invention, arrangement, diction/expression, action/delivery and memory). Demosthenes is considered the greatest among the […]

Read more

“Orations” by Cicero

[Volume X of Loeb Classical Library’s 28-volume series] What times! What crisis! What drama! A masterpiece of oratory! A fine specimen of human being! These orations by Cicero, especially “In Catilinam” and “Pro Murena”, showcase his exceptional skills as a lawyer and supreme orator, political foresight and vision as an eminent statesmen, erudition in law, politics, history and philosophy, and, above all, his “masterful urbanity” as a fine specimen of […]

Read more