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“De Optimo Genere Oratorum”

By Ana Rita Santos

Student Number: 163017

By Marcus Tullius Cicero

“The Best Type of Orator”

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Presentation’ content

	- Introduction on Cicero and some of his works
	- De oratore
	- Brutus
	- Orator
	- De optimo Genere Oratorum
	- Cicero on translation

- Orators’ characteristics

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In Cicero's time (106 BC- 43 BC), an education based on the Greek theory of Rhetoric was considered as normal.

Cicero, received an education not so different from the education of descendants of aristocratic families, as both Greek and Roman education.

Cicero wrote the works De oratore (55 BC), Brutus (or De claris oratoribus) (46 BC) and Orator (46 BC)

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Cicero’s works’ timeline

46BC

55BC

46BC

Orator

De optimo Genere Oratorum

De oratore

Brutus

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De oratore

Cicero states the importance of rhetoric

His discussion demonstrates that Cicero regards historical writing as no more than a branch of rhetoric.

There ends up existing a confront between the rhetorical and stoic school.

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Brutus

The discussion centers entirely around the controversy between Asianism and Atticism.

Written with the purpose of defending Cicero’s oratory

As the culmination of Roman eloquence, his narrative logic tends towards himself

It is by this work that he contemplates writing himself out of politics and into history

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Orator

Cicero portrays several models for speakers, at the same time affirming the importance of searching and discovering their own sense of rhetoric.

Here, he also addresses the accusation given to him, of him being an Atticist.

Throughout the text, he advises, his Roman audience, on how to form proper oratory by formal guidelines, but, also, how to specialize individually in their own sense of oratory.

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De Optimo Genere Oratum

This work starts with a distinction between poetry and oratory which is fundamental for Cicero’s argument:

“It is said there are various kinds of orators as there are of poets. But the fact is otherwise, for poetry takes many forms that is to say, every composition in verse, tragedy, comedy, epic, and also melic and dithyrambic(…) But in the case of orators if one in the same way enumerates several kinds, regarding some as grand, stately or opulent, others as plain, restrained or concise, and others in an intermediate position, forming as it were a mean between the other two, he gives some information about the men but does not tell us enough about the art of oratory.”

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He affirms a none dividable types oratory, and orators differ in degree and not in kind.

“The orator I do not divide into types, for I am looking for the perfect example. There is only one kind of perfect orator: those who do not belong to this group do not differ in genre (…) We must grant that one does it better than another, but the difference is in degree, not in kind.”

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It is important to point out, the conception of an ideal orator it does not appear in any of his rhetorical works before Orator

He also affirms that he had done it as an orator and not as an interpreter,

therefore “keeping the same ideas and (…) “figures” of thought, but in language which conforms to our usage. And in so doing I did not hold it necessary to render word for word, but I preserved the general style and force of the language.”

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Cicero on translation

Holds lexical operations as an acceptable way of procedure for a competent translator

We can separate his translation in two main groups:

In his youth, due to his education
His philosophical period

Translation is first theorized by Cicero in De oratore and De optimo genere oratorum

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All cicero did in De oratore was to extend imitation from intralingual to interlingual modeling

“Afterwards I resolved, — and this practice I followed when somewhat older, — to translate freely [explicarem] Greek speeches of the most eminent orators. The result of reading these was that, in rendering [redderem] into Latin what I had read in Greek, I not only found myself using the best words — and yet quite familiar ones — but also coining by analogy [exprimerem imitando] certain words such as would be new to our people, provided only they were appropriate.”

Cicero himself says that all his writings are mere transcripts of other peoplé’s ideas

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In De oratore, Cicero points out to follow whatever translation practice seems appropriate in specific circumstances

For the Christian tradition, this is not considered as translation. So, according to Christian tradition beliefs, Cicero’s pronouncements are, therefore, not translation theory.

Translation as an activity lacks definition for Cicero. As a result, Cicero feels very little need to assign that act as specific well-defined term.

In connection with imitando, exprimere means to mold or form one thing in imitation of another. Esprimere turns us the translator as rather the artist who mediates between two forms of being, two modes of understanding

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Cicero is not only tolerant of a wide spectrum of translator al activity, he also insists that translation be directed out into the world, out into the target culture, out into specific speech-use situations.

Cicero’s translation, contrary to Christian tradition, is useful in removing restrictions and letting the orator’s imagination spread in his translations.

He himself, for example, is able to let other orators speak through him with sufficient clarity, to establish a norm for equivalence, in his translations.

Still, he gives us the rules on how to be an orator (even how to be the best one).

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In De oratore

must have a knowledge of many matters to have successful rhetoric.

form a certain style through word choice and arrangement.

learn to understand human emotion so as to appeal to their audience.

must have a significant capacity for memory- they must remember complete histories of the past, as well as of the law

a speaker must deliver with control- using gestures, playing and expressing with features, and changing the intonation of the voice

must have a knowledge in all important subjects and arts. Without this, his speech would be empty, without beauty and fullness

Orators...

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In De Optimo Genere Oratorum

“The supreme orator, then, is the one whose speech instructs, delights and moves the minds of his audience.”

“For as eloquence consists of language and thought, we must manage while keeping our diction faultless and pure- that is in good Latin- to achieve a choice of words both “proper” and figurative.”

“(…) there is a way of putting words together- a structure as it were- to produce the two effects of rhythm and smoothness, and a way of arranging the ideas and an order which is best suited to proving one’s case.”

He must be able to adequate his oratory to any kind of occasion and listeners

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In Orator

According to Cicero, the three aims of the orator, are "docere, delectare, et movere.“

That is:

to prove your thesis to the audience,
to delight the audience, and
to emotionally move the audience.

The emotional vividness of poetic language becomes part of the rhetorical tools in service of persuading the audience to your point of view.

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Resources

Desmouliez, André. Cicéron et son goût
Graf, Fritz. Gestures and conventions
Connoly, Joy. The state of speech
Fox, Matthew. Cicero’s Philosophy of History
Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De Oratore
Wikipedia- orator (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orator_(Cicero))
Robinson, Douglas. Classical theories of translation from cicero to Aulus Gellius