Cicero was speaking like everybody, but better than anybody. Far from confining himself to the so-called 'periodic style', Cicero was a master of a thousand shades. This synopsis, followed by examples, shows in detail, why a study of Cicero's style might be rewarding even today.

Cicero's Accretive Style is a book about the nature of the Ciceronian exordium and its rhetorical structure and function. Through a sentence-by-sentence stylistic analysis of the exordia of a selection of Cicero's judicial speeches, this book explores how Cicero uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to fulfill the aims of the exordium as he himself defined them. The speeches selected for study include the Pro Quinctio, Pro Roscio Amerino, and Pro Rege Deiotaro, and cover the span of Cicero's career. The focus of the analysis is on Cicero's "accretive" style--not a rhetorical device in the formal sense, but a conscious, stylistic effort whose effect is rhetorical. Because Cicero also wrote important treatises on oratory and rhetoric, this book measures how closely Cicero followed his own guidelines laid down for the exordium, and how and under what circumstances he deviated or departed from them.

A comprehensive and authoritative account of one of the greatest and most prolific writers of classical antiquity.

Cicero's Philippics and Their Demosthenic Model: The Rhetoric of Crisis

The resurgence of interest in Cicero's political philosophy in the last twenty years demands a re-evaluation of Cicero's ideal statesman and its relationship not only to Cicero's political theory but also to his practical politics. Jonathan Zarecki proposes three original arguments: firstly, that by the publication of his De Republica in 51 BC Cicero accepted that some sort of return to monarchy was inevitable. Secondly, that Cicero created his model of the ideal statesman as part of an attempt to reconcile the mixed constitution of Rome's past with his belief in the inevitable return of sole-person rule. Thirdly, that the ideal statesman was the primary construct against which Cicero viewed the political and military activities of Pompey, Caesar and Antony, and himself.

Although Cicero's Phillipics are his most mature speeches, they have received little attention as works of oratory. On the other hand, scholars in this century have considered Cicero's attitudes toward and dependence on Demosthenes to be an issue of importance. Cecil Wooten brings together these two concerns, linking Cicero's use of Demosthenes as a model in the Phillipics to precise analyses of style, rhetorical modulation, and narrative technique. In doing so he defines and demonstrates the effectiveness of a type of oratory that he terms "the rhetoric of crisis." Characteristic of such rhetoric is the polarization of a conflict into a dichotomy between good and evil, right and wrong. The orator adopts a stance in which he is obsessed with the struggle, with victory, and with the preservation of a tradition. He defines his present crisis in terms of patterns that have appeared in the past, which means that he is likely to choose from the past a model for his own response to the crisis. In Demosthenes, Cicero found a statesman that had faced a similar political situation. Demosthenes' speeches were directed against Philip of Macedon, whose expanding empire threatened the survival of the Greek city-states. Antony posed an equally severe threat to the Roman republic, and Cicero therefore turned to Demosthenes' speeches as a model for his own. The oratory of both was forged during a period of supreme crisis, at a critical turning point in civilization. "Tremendous talent," Wooten writes of this oratory, "is coupled with the instinct for survival, the most basic of human impulses, to produce a form of oratory that is characterized by extreme clarity of vision, purposefulness, vividness, and rapidity of presentation, an oratory that is clean and direct and decisive, in which the organic synthesis of content, arrangement, and style is remarkable and striking." Originally published 1983. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

For the great Roman orator and statesman Cicero, 'the good life' was at once a life of contentment and one of moral virtue - and the two were inescapably intertwined. This volume brings together a wide range of his reflections upon the importance of moral integrity in the search for happiness. In essays that are articulate, meditative and inspirational, Cicero presents his views upon the significance of friendship and duty to state and family, and outlines a clear system of practical ethics that is at once simple and universal. These works offer a timeless reflection upon the human condition, and a fascinating insight into the mind of one of the greatest thinkers of Ancient Rome.

"Gotoff's commentary combines subtle analysis of language with vigorous historical and political discussion. It will appeal greatly to readers at every level of experience."--Holly W. Montague, Amherst College "A fine analysis of the prose stylistics

Publisher description