Rhetoric and Rome

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Rhetoric and Rome
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The Key Players

• Greek influence
• Cicero
• Quintilian
• Longinus

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Greeks

• Rome was synthesizer and organizer
• A Greek education was considered part of being
  a refined citizen
• Rhetoric was at the center of Greek and Roman
  education generally
• Borrowed from both Aristotle and Sophists
• Made significant use of the declamation,
  aggressive, almost booming
• Legislative and legal exercises

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Cicero the union of wisdom and eloquence

• Surviving works include 774 letters, 58 speeches
  and treatise on ethics, government, philosophy
  and many other topics.
• Rhetoric was more than rules and rubrics of
  technique but required deep mastery of
• Philosophy
• Law
• History
• Psychology

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Cicero

• The loci
• Focused and used on/in judicial pleading
• Divided into two categories-
• The attributes of the person in question
• The attributes of the act (what happened) in
  question
• How is this similar to our present legal system?

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The Five Canons

• Often attributed to Cicero but origin unclear
• Central to all of Roman Rhetoric
• Inventiondiscovery
• Arrangementorder
• Expressionlanguage
• Memorygrasp of words and ideas, in this case
  memorization
• Deliveryperformance of the plan

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Hermagoras

• Focused on the creation and classification of
  judicial arguments
• He identified three types of arguments-
• 1) conjectural
• 2) legal
• 3) juridicial

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Hermagoras

• Conjectural- an issue of a matter of fact
• Legal- interpretation of a document or codified
  law
• Juridicial- what is the rightness or wrongness of
  the act in question?

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Stasis System attributed to Cicero

• Stasis stopping points
• Issues of conflict, debate, etc.
• Divide the debate or questions at hand into
  precise issues of conflict
• Anticipating likely stopping points was key to
  effective rhetoric
• Stasis of Legal Concerns Included
• Issues of Fact or Conjecture what happened, or
  what is or will happen??
• Issues of Definition what should we call it?
• Issues of Quality to what degree did/does it
  happen? How should we categorize it?
• Issues of Procedure how should we go about
  resolving this issue?

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An issue for today

• In order to increase safety on campus, all
  students must pass criminal background checks
• Where are the stopping points? Where is
  disagreement engaged?

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Threats to Rhetoric

• Decline of democracy
• Leaders see criticism (of them) as a real threat
• Cicero is executed
• Increasing specialization of legal and political
  arenas

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Quintilian

• Born in Spain circa AD 30
• Taught law and then rhetoric
• Key Work Institutio Oratoria
• Focused on educating the orator/citizen
• Education covered a lifetime
• My aim is the education of the perfect orator
• He developed the idea of the art of the good
  citizen speaking well

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Quintilian The high ethic

• Such education began at birth
• Focus on the moral function and responsibility of
  rhetoric
• Focus on the benefit of society
• The high moral base is joined with the learned
  skills

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What is a Good Person

• Quintilians List
• Respect for public opinion
• Fortitude
• Bravery
• Integrity
• Eloquence
• Honor
• Responsibility
• Sincerity

• Common senses
• Justice
• Knowledge
• Sense of duty
• Virtue
• How are you doing as a person?

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Actions of the Good

• Advocates noble policies
• Studies phil. logic
• Imitates great speakers
• Defends guilty and innocent
• May conceal truth from judge
• May use methods close to fraud
• May tell a lie
• Engages in all activities that develop character