Introduction

Some of the most striking vignettes in ancient history concern the figure of the orator addressing his fellow-citizens. Demosthenes urging the Athenians to resist Philip; Tiberius Gracchus lynched by a band of senators as he addressed a gathering of Romans on the Capitol; Cicero driving Catiline from Rome by the sheer force of his speaking in the Senate. Public speaking was at the heart of political life in both democratic Athens and republican Rome; and even in states with less democratic forms of government, oratory was often an important skill for members of the elite to possess, to persuade their peers and to demonstrate their cultural awareness. The surviving texts of Greek and Roman oratory are one of the supreme literary monuments of antiquity; they are also texts which historians rely on in answering a wide variety of questions. Yet the nature of oratory imposes considerable constraints on the conclusions one can legitimately draw from it.

Ancient theorists of public speaking divided oratory into three categories, depending upon the context of speaking. Forensic oratory is oratory delivered in the law-courts, either in prosecution or in defense; deliberative oratory deals with determining courses of action, such as speeches given to the Athenian or Roman popular assemblies or in the Senate; epideictic oratory involves the praise or blame of an individual. Oratory, then, while being possible in any political system, becomes a particularly important skill in states whose constitution contains a democratic element, and where, in turn, the ability to persuade large groups of people contributes to political power.

So important was public speech to political activity in democratic communities that a whole science of speaking - rhetoric - developed in the fifth-century Greek world. The essential claim made by rhetoric is that speaking well is a skill which can be taught: natural talent is not irrelevant, but an individual’s innate capacity can be improved by systematic training and practice. Furthermore, the techniques of effective speaking are morally neutral: that is, they can be applied to bad arguments as well as to good ones. These two characteristics made rhetoric an object of profound

A Companion to Ancient History Edited by Andrew Erskine © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 978-1-405-13150-6

Suspicion to many ancient thinkers, among whom Plato is the most prominent: his attack on rhetoric, and corresponding elevation of philosophy, dominates both Phaedrus and Gorgias.

Rhetoric is not central to modern education, and the term itself, in everyday speech, tends to be used in a hostile or derogatory fashion. But for historians who use ancient oratory, rhetoric is an important concept because it helps us to deal with one of the chief difficulties of using evidence from oratory: its systematic distortion of the events it describes and analyzes. An orator seeks the best possible presentation of his case, and not balance, fairness, or accuracy - unless such qualities will assist him in securing his aim in speaking, whatever that may be.