A proper understanding of the connections between rhetoric and political life demands a prior grasp of how the city functioned, which may be gained from other contributions to this volume, especially Chapter 12, but also 1, 11, and 18.
Regarding the circumstances of political debate in the popular assemblies, see Taylor 1966a, which still offers an excellent picture of the concrete conditions under which they proceeded, and recently Morstein-Marx 2004, which analyzes the modes of interaction between the orator and his audience. (On the recent debate about the actual role of the People in decision making and therefore on the arguably ‘‘democratic’’ nature of political debate, see Chapters 1, 12, and 18 in this volume.) For senatorial debate, see Bonnefond-Coudry 1989 and Ryan 1998; for forensic debate, David 1992a. The political importance of the great trials of the end of the Republic emerges clearly from Gruen 1968 and 1974.
The history of rhetoric should be set in the general context of the cultural history of the Republic: see Rawson 1985. All the information on the period before Sulla has now been assembled in Suerbaum 2002. The question of Hellenism is clearly central. Gruen 1992 has shown that there are no grounds for invoking the idea of a battle of cultures. (See also Chapter 22.) Yet one should still not underestimate the depth of the opposition between the intellectual and ‘‘ethical’’ (i. e., based on rhetorical ethos: n.17 above) models since they constituted at once tools of persuasion, legitimation, and therefore of power. (See especially the affair of the Latin rhetoricians.)
Clarke 1951 and especially Kennedy 1972 offer a good approach to the history of rhetoric specifically. The issues of the pre-Ciceronian period are well presented by Calboli 1982. A useful introduction to Ciceronian rhetorical theory is J. May and J. Wisse’s translation of On the Orator. May and Wisse 2001. Finally, Bonner 1977 offers a history of education, including methods of training.
Reading Cicero remains the best way to approach him: the speeches (e. g., the Defense of Roscius of Ameria; the Against Verres, Second Phase, Book 4 or 5; the Defense of Murena, Catilinarian Orations, the Defense of Sestius, Defense of Milo, the Philippics), the dialogues (e. g., On the Orator, On Duties, On Supreme Good and Evil, Discussions at Tusculum), and the letters (one might select one or two years of
The correspondence). The bibliography on Cicero is immense: on the rhetorical writings and speeches, one might start with May 2002. The two-volume biography by Mitchell (1979 and 1991) is a good introduction to Cicero’s life and political Career.
World History
