When one thinks of great orators, some of the modern masters of oratory and rhetoric come to mind such as û on the side of the angels û- Martin Luther King, Jr. or Winston Churchill or û on the side of evil û- Adolf Hitler or Pol Pot. These men were all undeniably masters of the art of persuasive and eloquent speech; however, to understand how oratory is practiced one can look most profitably to the origins of the form in the classical world. This paper examines the person who might be considered to be the founder of the Western oratorical tradition, the Roman writer, diplomat and orator Cicero (106-43 BC).
Although he had a distinguished political career, he is best known as Rome's greatest orator and as a man of letters. Born Marcus Tullius Cicero in Arpinum (now Arpino, Italy), he was also known as Tully. As a youth he studied law, oratory, literature, and philosophy in Rome. After brief military service and three years' experience as a lawyer defending private citizens, he traveled to Greece and Asia, where he continued his studies. He returned to Rome in 77 BC and began his political career and in 74 BC he was elected to the Senate (Sumner, 1973, p. 5).
Although Cicero's family did not belong to the Roman aristocracy, he was supported in the competition for the consulship in 64 BC by most rich and powerful Romans because of their distrust of his aristocratic but less respectable rival, Lucius Sergius Catilina, known as Catiline. Cicero was elected, but during his administration Catiline organized a plot to overthrow the government. Cicero suppressed the conspiracy and had several members of Catiline's group executed, something that he accomplished in no small measure through the power of his public oratorical presentations. Julius Caesar and other Roman senators argued that Cicero had acted too hastily, without giving the conspirators due process of law. As a result, in 58 BC, Cicero was forced into exile. After a year i...