Cicero (106-43 B.C.): To Prove, to Please, and to Persuade
A member of the Roman Senate, Cicero was the most influential practitioner and theorist of ancient rhetoric who ever lived. In De Oratore (Orator), Cicero examined the qualities of what he perceived to be the ideal orator."There is a scientific system of politics which includes many important departments. One of these departments--a large and important one--is eloquence based on the rules of art, which they call rhetoric. For I do not agree with those who think that political science has no need for eloquence, and I violently disagree with those who think that it is wholly comprehended in the power and skill of the rhetorician. Therefore we will classify oratorical ability as a part of political science. The function of eloquence seems to be to speak in a manner suited to persuade an audience, the end is to persuade by speech."
(Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Inventione, 55 B.C., translated by H. M. Hubbell)
"The man of eloquence whom we seek, following the suggestion of Antonius, will be one who is able to speak in court or in deliberative bodies so as to prove, to please, and to sway or persuade. To prove is the first necessity, to please is charm, to sway is victory; for it is the one thing of all that avails most in winning verdicts. For these three functions of the orator there are three styles: the plain style for proof, the middle style for pleasure, the vigorous style for persuasion; and in this last is summed up the entire virtue of the orator. Now the man who controls and combines these three varied styles needs rare judgment and great endowment; for he will decide what is needed at any point, and will be able to speak in any way which the case requires. For, after all, the foundation of eloquence, as of everything else, is wisdom. In an oration, as in life, nothing is harder than to determine what is appropriate."
(Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Oratore, 46 B.C., translated by H.M. Hubbell)
Quintilian (c.35-c.100): The Good Man Speaking Well
A great Roman rhetorician, Quintilian's reputation rests on Institutio Oratoria (Institutes of Oratory), a compendium of the best of ancient rhetorical theory."For my part, I have undertaken the task of molding the ideal orator, and as my first desire is that he should be a good man, I will return to those who have sounder opinions on the subject. . . . The definition which best suits its real character is that which makes rhetoric the science of speaking well. For this definition includes all the virtues of oratory and the character of the orator as well, since no man can speak well who is not good himself."
(Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, 95, translated by H. E. Butler)
Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430): The Aim of Eloquence
As described in his autobiography (The Confessions), Augustine was a student of law and for ten years a teacher of rhetoric in North Africa before taking up study with Ambrose, the bishop of Milan and an eloquent orator. In Book IV of On Christian Doctrine, Augustine justifies the use of rhetoric to spread the doctrine of Christianity."After all, the universal task of eloquence, in whichever of these three styles, is to speak in a way that is geared to persuasion. The aim, what you intend, is to persuade by speaking. In any of these three styles, indeed, the eloquent man speaks in a way that is geared to persuasion, but if he doesn’t actually persuade, he doesn’t achieve the aim of eloquence."
(St. Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, 427, translated by Edmund Hill)
Postscript on Classical Rhetoric: "I Say"
"The word rhetoric can be traced back ultimately to the simple assertion 'I say' (eiro in Greek). Almost anything related to the act of saying something to someone--in speech or in writing--can conceivably fall within the domain of rhetoric as a field of study."(Richard E. Young, Alton L. Becker, and Kenneth L. Pike, Rhetoric: Discovery and Change, 1970)
