The World of Tacitus' Dialogus de Oratoribus: Aesthetics and Empire in Ancient Rome

by Christopher S. van den Berg

Overview

Coming to terms with the rhetorical arts of antiquity necessarily illuminates our own ideas of public discourse and the habits of speech to which they have led. Tacitus wrote the Dialogus at a time (ca. 100 CE) when intense scrutiny of the history, the definitions, and the immediate relevance of public speech were all being challenged and refashioned by a host of vibrant intellects and ambitious practitioners. This book challenges the notion that Tacitus sought to explain the decline of oratory under the Principate. Rather, from examination of the dynamics of argument in the dialogue and the underlying literary traditions there emerges a sophisticated consideration of eloquentia in the Roman Empire. Tacitus emulates Cicero's legacy and challenges his position at the top of Rome's oratorical canon. He further shows that eloquentia is a means by which to compete with the power of the Principate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781316053720
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/11/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Christopher van den Berg is Assistant Professor of Classics at Amherst College, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Introduction: rhetorical beginnings and rhetorical ends; 1. The Dialogus and its contexts; 2. Interpretations; 3. Interstitial strategies and reading around the speeches; 4. A world of eloquentia; 5. An aetiology of contemporary eloquentia; 6. From De oratore to De oratoribus; 7. Literary criticism and history: Cicero, Horace, and Quintilian in the Dialogus; Conclusion; Appendix: detailed outline of Tacitus' Dialogus de oratoribus.