The World of Tacitus' Dialogus de Oratoribus

Aesthetics and Empire in Ancient Rome

Bibliographic Data

ID19940985
AuthorsChristopher S Van Den Berg (Amherst College, corresponding author)
Year2014
Publication date2014-09-11
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueWorld of Tacitus' Dialogus de Oratoribus (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9781139108003
OpenAlexW2987823732
Open LibraryOL34561043M
ISBN9781139108003
LanguageEN
Citations received40

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

Ancient history · Argument (complex analysis) · Art · Cicero · Empire · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Principate · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Scrutiny · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Classics · History · Law · Organic Chemistry Synthesis Methods · Philosophy · ancient · Ancient Oratory · Dialogus de oratoribus (Tacitus, Cornelius) · History and criticism · Latin Dialogues · Rome · Textual Criticism

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