1 of 12

Marcus Tullius Cicero. De Optimo Genere Oratorum

​

Aitor Anseeuw and Rosalie Fabris

24th October 2024

2 of 12

Outline

  1. Cicero
  2. De Optimo Genere Oratorum: theory
  3. De Optimo Genere Oratorum: content
  4. Word-for-word or sense-for-sense?
  5. Bibliography

​

​

​

3 of 12

1. Cicero

  • 2nd century BC – 1st century BC
  • Ancient Rome
  • Most famous Roman rhetor and rhetorician
  • “Ciceronian rhetoric”: writings on rhetorics
  • Founder of Western translation theory
  • Wealthy, but not noble family
  • Oratorial talents gave him important posts in Roman society
  • However…. Also attempts on his life

​

4 of 12

2. De Optimo Genere Oratorum: theory

  • “Of the best kind of orator”
  • Introduction to speeches by Demosthenes and Aeschines
  • Origins of the translation debate
    • What is the best method to translate?
    • Word-for-word translation
    • Sense-for-sense translation

​

5 of 12

2. De Optimo Genere Oratorum: theory

Word-for-word translation

  • “Literal” translation
  • Replacement of each word of the source text with its grammatical equivalent
  • Interpreter

Sense-for-sense translation

  • “Free” translation
  • Preserving the main idea and form of the source text but also adapting it to the target language
  • Orator (= Cicero!)

6 of 12

2. De Optimo Genere Oratorum: theory

  • = produce aesthetically pleasing text in the target language
  • = avoid cloaking the sense of the original text
  • Enriching Latin and its literature through translation
    • Source texts: Greek 🡨🡪 Target texts: Latin
  • Roman translation: follows an established Greek literary tradition
  • Great influence in Western tradition! (Cfr. Horace, St. Jerome)

​

7 of 12

3. De Optimo Genere Oratorum: content

  • Part I:
    • Different kinds of orators and poets
    • Every genre has its own individuality
    • One type of perfect orator: “the one whose speech instructs, delights, and moves the minds of his audience”
    • Orators are the same in kind, but different in degree
  • Part II:
    • Five criteria for the perfect orator:
      • Style, structure, arrangement, memory, and delivery
    • “The man who is supreme in all these departments will be the most perfect orator.”

​

8 of 12

3. De Optimo Genere Oratorum: content

  • Part III:
    • Attic writers are the best orators (they follow the criteria)
    • We need to imitate only these orators
      • “Let us imitate those whose purity is untainted – which is characteristic of the Attic writers – rather than those whose opulent style is full of faults.”
  • Part IV:
    • Two groups: people who think they speak like the Attics, people who say that Romans cannot speak that way
    • Best orators = Attic writers
    • “Speaking in the Attic fashion means speaking well”

9 of 12

3. De Optimo Genere Oratorum: content

  • Part V:
    • Introduction to translation manner of Aeschines and Demosthenes’s speeches (Attic orators)
    • “I did not translate them as an interpreter, but as an orator” (sense-for-sense)
  • Part VI:
    • By using sense-for-sense, characteristics of the best orator are clear
    • “Why their aversion to speeches translated from the Greek when they have none to translations of poetry?”
  • Part VII:
    • General topic of the debate between Aeschines and Demosthenes
    • No actual translation of the speeches…
    • “If I shall succeed in rendering their speeches […] by retaining all their virtues, that is, the thoughts, the figures of thought and the order of topics.”

10 of 12

4. Word-for-word vs sense-for-sense?

  • Do we have to pick sides in this debate?
    • Both are truly important
    • Depending on the context and field
      • Law, medicine, science = word-for-word
      • Literature, arts, humanities= sense-for-sense
      • Working with the source author? Better for target tekst!
  • Cicero’s De Optimo Genere Oratorum
    • First text that documented this debate
    • Influence up until today

11 of 12

4. Word-for-word vs sense-for-sense?

“To what, to whom, should a translation be faithful? To the source language or to the spirit of what is to be rendered in the target language? There is an antinomy here between two possible modes of fidelity. All translation exists in the tension between these two necessary and contradictory demands.”

- Jean-René Ladmiral (French translator)

12 of 12

5. Bibliography

  • Bassnett, Susan (1980). Translation Studies. New York: Routledge.
  • Munday, Jeremy (2001). Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. Oxford: Routledge.
  • Robinson, Douglas (1997). Western Translation Theory from Herodotus to Nietzsche. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.

​