The Importance Of Rhetoric In Cicero's De Oratory

Throughout the course of ancient rhetoric, different philosophers and sophists created images of what was an ideal orator. Some emphasized on the delivery of content, others discussed the necessity of the oratory skills, and knowing what is ethical and moral. Rhetoricians such as Cicero, would further discuss the importance of the orator’s education, and the best methods of persuasion. Others like Quintilian would focus on the rhetoric, the art of three appeals, and the method versus the content. Overall, throughout the course of time, the ideal orator slowly evolved, and changed into that of the perfect speaker. For this paper, I will discuss that which is said in Cicero’s De Oratory and Quintilian’s Institute of Oratory, and elaborate on
Essentially what we know today as body language. Next, the orator should learn to expand their memories. In order to respond to a variety of conversation, they should be able to recall histories of the past, as well as know laws of the society. The orator should be one who is able to combine a variety of things, and in order to be successful, they needed to maintain all these areas in order to achieve persuasion. Moving on from the orator’s education, Cicero emphasized the responsibility of the orator. They must be knowledgeable in many important subjects, otherwise their speeches would appear without flow and eloquence. He saw that this essentially was an impossible task, but put it as it’s better to know little about a lot of things, than to know a lot about one thing. It was the moral duty of the orator to be knowledgeable on a vast array of subjects. If the audience would discover that they did not know, then they would lose their appeal, and be seen as untrustworthy, and incapable of
The ideal orator should be well versed in education from a young age. Only that who is educated will have the capacity to be a good speaker. Furthermore, an ideal orator should be able to utilize the various skills necessary to speaking. They should be able to speak to the audience, be able to recall histories from the past, and to be good. Expanding off the differences, Cicero viewed the art of oratory more as an art of science, whereas Quintilian did to an extent, but not so much. Oratory cannot simply fit into the category of science, however, the study of rhetoric and the art of oratory can. Both saw the importance of being able to move between topics, and that orators should be able to speak on a variety of topics. They saw it better to be able to be versed in argument than to speak only on a certain subject. De Oratory and Institute of Oratory both discussed what an ideal oratory is. They have skills needed, the value placed on education, and that of morality. Orators are modest in speech, and see the need to exercise their skill in order to become masters in their art. More so, the delivery of the content to certain audience needed to be changed to a different audience, and an ideal orator should be able to distinguish that