Two major styles influential, bothderived from ancient Greek tradition:

1. Asiatic - from Pergamum in Asia Minor, datingfrom late 4th c BC. Highly emotional, usinggestures, flowery phrases and musical rhythms

2. Attic - made famous by Lysias (d. 380 BC). Plain,

simple and direct

Rhetorica ad Herennium (Art of Rhetoric Addressed toHerennius). Only surviving text on rhetoric fromLate Republican period

Rhetoric

106 BC Born into Italian equestrian family.Studies law and philosophy in Rome,Athens and Rhodes. Pursues political careerand rises through ranks

69 BC Curule aedile

66 BC Praetor

63 BC Consul. Executes conspirators led byCatalina

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

58 BC Exiled by enemies

57 BC Recalled and hailed as hero

49-45 BC Supports Pompey against JuliusCaesar in civil war. Forgiven byvictorious Caesar

44 BC Caesar assassinated. Cicero approves

43 BC Executed by Octavian and Antony

Wrote large number of works, including:

Many legal and political speeches, includingIn Catalinam (vs. Catalina) and thePhilippics (vs. Antony)

Essays, including De Senectute (On Old Age)and De Amicitia (On Friendship)

Philosophical and legal treatises, includingDe Legibus (On the Laws) and De RePublicae (On the Republic)

Works on rhetoric, including De Oratore (Onthe Orator) and the Brutus (an account ofRoman oratory)

Also well known for many letters that describeevents taking place around him

In his rhetoric, Cicero uses blend of Asiaticand Attic styles

Genres of Rhetoric1. Judicial/forensic genre: used in law courts

2. Deliberative genre: used in parliamentaryor popular politics

3. Demonstrative/epideictic genre: used onceremonial occasions

Extracts from De Inventione (On Invention) andPartitiones Oratoriae, both by Cicero, andthe Rhetorica ad Herenniam

Herodotus (c. 484-425 BC)

Thucydides (c. 460-400 BC)

Polybius (mid 2nd c BC)

Historical WritingEarliest Roman historians, writing in wake of

Second Punic War (218-201 BC) tookinspiration from ancient Greek historiansand wrote in Greek. Later was gradualchangeover to writing in Latin

Early Roman histories are also propagandadocuments and have conservative agenda

Historians tended to be from upper classes

Julius Caesar (102-44 BC)

The Gallic War

The Civil War

Little known of Tacitus’ life. Attained senatorialrank. Served as consul in 97 AD. Laterproconsul (governor) of Asia

Works: 1. Dialogus (Dialogue), on oratory2. Biography of father-in-law Agricola,

general and governor of Britain(77-84 AD)

3. De Origine et Situ Germanorum(On the Origin and Location ofthe Germans), ≈ ethnography

Gaius (or Publius) CorneliusTacitus (c. 55-117 AD)

4. Histories, covering Flavian period(69-96 AD)

5. Annals, covering Julio-Claudiandynasty from 14-68 AD, writtenc. 100-111 AD

Only parts of these two works survive