Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; Also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker.
1939
Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; Also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker.
1939
Translated by Jones E.
The book that shaped Western rhetoric for two millennia. Cicero, the greatest orator of ancient Rome, wrote these two works in 46 BCE as the Republic hemorrhaged toward civil war. Brutus is a dialogue with his young friend Brutus (later famous for assassinating Caesar) surveying the great orators of Greece and Rome, their methods, and the evolution of the art of persuasion. Orator goes further, articulating what makes the ideal speaker: not mere fluency, but the fusion of wisdom, character, and emotional power capable of swaying crowds and shaping history. Throughout both works runs a melancholy current: Cicero mourns the death of his rival Hortensius while worrying about eloquence's decline in Roman public life. Here you will find the foundation of every principle of rhetoric taught in Western civilization, along with a surprising autobiographical sketch and Cicero's incisive observations on how audiences shape a speaker's style. This is not dusty antiquity. It is the DNA of everything we mean by 'the power of speech.'
