Imperial Eloquence: The Theory and Practice of Rhetoric in Rome's "Silver Age"

3 units

Under the early Roman emperors, when the fiery political oratory of the republic was only a memory, oratory and rhetorical training remained highly important vehicles for advocacy of communities and indivduals, élite self-definition, communication of political and cultural values, literary expression, and even mass entertainment. Early imperial literary sources attest rhetoric's dominance of the educational curriculum, and this was only the beginning of an enduring institution. In this course we will study (in the original Latin) the description and prescription for rhetorical education written by Quintilian and Tacitus' discussion of the literary and political status of rhetoric in the imperial period, along with several other primary and secondary sources that flesh out our picture of the theory and practice of rhetoric.