Brutus (Cicero)

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Male portrait, so-called “Brutus”. Marble, Roman artwork, 30–15 BC. From the Tiber, Rome.

Marcus Cornelius Cethegus.[2]

Characters

  • Cicero – He is the main figure of the work. He strengthens the idea that after the civil war, many of the "good" orators have either left or fled Rome. The few individuals who stayed behind are hiding in silence. Cicero recalls his visits to the forum and some of the orators he has been able to hear. He also mentions his study of eloquence and his dedication to philosophical studies.
  • Brutus – He is a friend of Atticus and a person who does not like eloquence.
  • Atticus – He is a friend of Brutus who encounters Cicero while walking somewhere. Cicero mentions that Atticus is from Athens when he discusses the beginnings of oratory. Atticus speaks the least of all the three men.

History of eloquence

Cicero begins his work by lamenting the death of his friend

Peisistratos, Solon, Pericles, and mentions how figures like Socrates
challenged them. He continues by saying that oratory was only limited to Athens and was not ubiquitous in Greece. It was from here that oratory spread through parts of Asia and the world.

Cicero then begins to trace the origins of oratory in

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica and even discusses how Cato the Elder and Lysias the Athenian resemble each other in their elegance, character, and brevity. Cicero mentions the idea that Cato is overshadowed by other figures, but is still noteworthy. After Cato, new orators appeared in Rome such as Severius Galba. He also provides an example of how Galba was able to win over the court with an amazing, eloquent speech and that his people (in a court case) were freed from all charges.[3]

Criticism

Cicero's work is typically seen as a list of orators and the development of oratory in Rome. While the purpose of the Brutus is to record the history of oratory and confirm that it has failed to exist, some scholars believe that Cicero fails in his task. This is a problem because Cicero fails to include a reliable list of Roman oratory by purposely omitting figures like Gaius Marius, Sulla, Catiline, and Publius Clodius Pulcher.[4] Scholars also argue that the Brutus is not a complete list because Cicero fails to include himself in his list.

Another criticism of the Brutus is that it lacks minuscule scene details. The work only thoroughly describes the garden and the statue of Plato where the three men plan to discuss oratory, but other than that, the work is devoid of other details. Whereas the scenery lacks details, the conversation does not.[1]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9004121471.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  2. ISBN 0192827081
    .
  3. ISBN 0-404-54106-2
    .
  4. JSTOR 43646670
    .

Further reading

  • G. V. Sumner (1973) The Orators in Cicero's Brutus: Prosopography and Chronology
  • Edward A. Robinson, The Date of Cicero's Brutus, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 60, (1951), pp. 137–146
  • Hall, Jon. "Cicero's Brutus and the Criticism of Oratorical Performance." The Classical Journal 110.1 (2014). 43–59. JSTOR.

External links
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