Cicero's Pro Archia has historically been taken as a bona fide expression of humanism. In this article, I demonstrate how this reading of the Pro Archia has allowed the political and cultural tensions in the speech to remain hidden. Cicero's vision of Archias as an idealized amalgam sanitizes both the poetic and the cultural identity of his Syrian client in favour of a projection which combined generic “Greekness” with a politicized invocation of the Roman poet, Q. Ennius. Contextualizing the Pro Archia within its contemporary political moment reveals that Cicero is consciously constructing a narrative of Archias as a “good immigrant.”

The following comparison of Cicero's Verrines with Barack Obama's 2008 campaign rhetoric reveals the parallelism between these candidates’ stylistic responses to the challenges of novitas , as they turn obstacle into advantage and transform change into tradition. Through similar stylistic means, these candidates demonstrate their unique ability to preserve their respective political communities thanks to their positions as both outsiders and insiders who possess “double vision.” Cicero's distinctive rhetoric of novitas , which is an enduring contribution to republican politics, is a model for the campaigns of outsider candidates like Obama who seek to sustain, not break with, the classical republican tradition.

Messalla Corvinus, celebrated as one of the greatest orators of the generation after Cicero, offers an ideal case study for political life in the triumviral period and early principate. His distinctive style is reminiscent of what Cicero described as the middle style, exemplified by Marcus Calidius and Cicero's Pro Lege Manilia and Pro Marcello . This style complemented his mild, accomodationist political persona, evident especially in his support of Augustus and his rejection of the office of urban prefect, in a synergistic fusion of style and ethos .

Um überzeugend vortragen zu können, muss der Redner in der Antike über eine gesunde und starke Stimme verfügen. Dadurch kommt es zu Überschneidungen zwischen der Rhetorik und der Medizin, die der vorliegende Aufsatz untersucht. Ausgehend von der Bedeutung des Vortrags und der Betonung seiner Körperlichkeit werden die praxisorientierten Anweisungen zur Stimmpflege und zum Stimmtraining erläutert. An einem konkreten Textausschnitt aus der Rhetorica ad Herennium wird die Wirkung von Theorien der Stimmerzeugung auf die Anweisungen der Rhetoren zur Stabilität der Stimme im Vortrag gezeigt. Die Theorie, die die Spannung der Atemluft bzw. des Körpers ins Zentrum der Stimmerzeugung setzt, spiegelt sich im akustischen Vokabular für Lautstärke und Tonhöhe wider.

Thomas Hobbes is a severe critic of rhetoric but he is also a careful student and skillful practitioner of the art of persuasion. Many critics have therefore argued that Hobbes's views of rhetoric are both conflicted and inconsistent. In contrast, I argue that Hobbes's conception of rhetoric displays remarkable consistency. While he rejects the abuses of rhetoric abundant in political oratory he nevertheless embraces the power of eloquence. In Leviathan Hobbes reconciles his appreciation of eloquence with his distrust of oratory by refashioning rhetoric into a private, rather than public art, which fulfills many of the traditional duties of rhetoric.

Pro Sulla §§18–19 demonstrates a tactic of self-depiction unique in Cicero's speeches; the orator represents an internal dialogue in which his natural kindness towards the Catilinarian Autronius is overcome by arguments that his audience can recognize as the prosecutor's stock tactics of emotional amplification prescribed in De Inventione . By ostentatiously persuading himself to sternness with the stock appeals designed to persuade a normative audience, the orator can justify his actions against the Catilinarians while asserting that his essential nature is kind and compassionate. This tactic is both essential for Cicero's persuasive strategy and useful for his broader self-depiction for the reading audience of the speech.

Although much has been written about ancient rhetorical theories of example, few scholars have examined the subtypes of example contained in these ancient rhetorical theories. As a corrective to this scholarly blind spot, this article explores the lesser-known conceptual history of “comparison,” which Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian all theorize as a subtype of example. Taken together, their rhetorical theories suggest that arguments by comparison are hypothetical, contentious, indirect, interrogative, and frequently deceptive. Moreover, Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian all theorize comparison by calling attention to the persuasive artistry of Socrates, notably his use of arguments by comparison to provoke interlocutors without challenging them directly. Understanding and explaining these rhetorical theories of comparison is the primary task of this article.

Notwithstanding the widespread assumption that Aristotle forges a better relationship among rhetoric, the emotions, and political morality than Cicero, I contend that Cicero, not Aristotle, offers a more relevant account of the relationship among these terms. I argue that, by grounding his account of emotional appeals in the art of rhetoric, Aristotle does not evade the moral problems originating in emotional manipulation. Moreover, Aristotle's approach to emotional appeals in politics is, compared to Cicero's, static, unable to adapt to new political circumstances. I suggest that Cicero's approach to the rhetorical emotions is more acceptable to a modern audience than Aristotle's because it is ethically based while also responsive to political realities. Cicero accommodates emotional appeals to circumstance based on his belief in decorum as a moral principle. Further, I show that emotional manipulation in Cicero is not as problematical as it initially appears.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how Cicero in his in Vatinium employs the iconic power of the body of the accused, Vatinius, and its repulsive strumae as a logical tool to support his persuasion strategy, thereby creating an enthymeme based upon the premises provided by the features of the body. This way of reasoning rests upon a strongly oriented and often distorting reading of the physical characteristics of the body in accordance with the physiognomic and pathognomonic doctrines. As a result, the de-formities of Vatinius's body, instead of being used to commend Vatinius, become important elements in Cicero's strategy of belittling his opponent's authority.

Recurring features of Miltonic rhetoric during the 1640s include the structural patterns of the oration and the animadversion, widespread deployment of the classical high, low, and middle styles, and an epideictic mode of praise and blame. Equally noteworthy is the close relationship of rhetoric and poetic. These features can be used as a template to characterize Milton's work in 1659–60, his final period as a political controversialist. Five texts make up this period: Civil Power (1659), Likeliest Means (1659), two editions of The Readie Way (1660), and Brief Notes (1660). In 1659–60 the oration remains Milton's preferred form of public, inaugural address, yet traces of the Puritan sermon can also be found. As he had done in the 1640s, Milton later relied on the classical low style for argument, documentation, and narration. The poetic qualities of Miltonic polemic are as evident in 1659–60 as they had been in the 1640s. The well-developed mimetic identity of the second edition of The Readie Way represents a sophistication of the localized mimesis of the 1640s.

This paper discusses the function of speeches given by Cicero to the popular assembly ( contio ) as reports about recent political events or decrees. Several of the few extant examples are part of oratorical corpora consisting of speeches from politically difficult periods, namely from Cicero's consular year (63 BCE; Catilinarians ) and from his fight against Mark Antony (44–43 BCE; Philippics ). Cicero is shown to have applied his oratorical abilities in all these cases to exploit the contio speeches so as to present narrative accounts of political developments in his interpretation and thus to influence public opinion in the short term during the political process and particularly, within an edited corpus, in the long term.

Thomas Sprat's History of the Royal Society (London, 1667) is the most frequently cited work when it comes to describing the relationship between science and rhetoric in seventeenth-century England. Whereas previous discussions have mostly centered on whether or not Sprat rejects the rhetorical tradition, the present study investigates his manner of approaching past authorities. As a writer, Sprat demonstrates the same kind of utilitarian attitude towards the handed-down material in his field of knowledge as he says is characteristic of the Royal Society's natural philosophers. Making good use of Ciceronian ideas, Sprat emerges, not as a condemner, but as a rescuer of rhetoric.

In his avowedly Stoic De Officiis , Cicero publicizes the persuasive power of a conversational manner, a communicative style consonant with Stoicism's emphasis on human togetherness. The relationships between and among conversation ( sermo ), Stoicism, and rhetoric call for scrutiny, especially since in other works Cicero decries the uselessness of Stoicism to orators of res publica . By connecting Stoicism with sermo , and sermo with oratory-glory, Cicero fits Stoicism to Rome's political contours and also ushers future leaders of public affairs into both rhetorical and philosophical conversation—mild-mannered modes of discourse—during a politically turbulent time.

This paper argues that Cicero's reading of Demosthenes' De corona and his preoccupation with Demosthenes at the time he was composing the Brutus and in particular the Orator are evident in the list of thirty-four sententiae (“figures of thought”) given at Orator 137–9. Examples of all of these may be found in the De corona and they are listed here. It is also argued that the De corona was by far the most influential of Demosthenes' speeches on Cicero's Philippics .

Popular eighteenth-century British biographies of Cicero had a significant impact on the rhetorical identity formation of Elizabeth Montagu (1720–1800). As the acknowledged founder of the “Bluestocking” salon, Elizabeth Montagu played a key role in forming the conversational and epistolary eloquence of her broad and influential network of men and women. A careful analysis of the young Elizabeth's epistolary discussion of biographies of Cicero and Atticus, especially Conyers Middleton's Life of Cicero , provides insight into Montagu's mature rhetorical practice as well as neo-Ciceronian influences on men's and women's rhetorical identity formation in eighteenth-century Britain.