Rhetoric

Introduction

Rhetoric can be defined as the art of speaking as well as writing well. Over the history various scholars have developed theories aimed at coming up with the best ways of speaking as well as writing effectively.  These theories were developed with an aim of helping people to write speeches as well give moving speeches that would caught the attention of the intended audience.

Many rhetoric theories have been developed by various scholars over the history such as Gorgias, Isocrates, Corax among others. Aristotle theory of rhetoric is the only theory that has survived in history. The paper seeks to analyze the factors that have made the rhetoric an outstanding theory of rhetoric’s over the history. In order to achieve this goal I will analyze the Cicero speech with an aim of analyzing the Ciceronian and Aristotelian theories of rhetoric.

Discussion

It is important to understand why Cicero did deliver the Catilinarian speeches. Normally, a speech can be said to address the various needs that arise from the context of the orator. For example, the innocence or guilt of the person accused, praising of the dead or responding to aggression from a foreigner. Historical and rhetorical analyses then proceed to evaluate/examine the ability of the orator to marshal his/her arguments as well as using the various historical facts which have resulted in creation of the speech in question. As a persuasive and unified part, the historical role of the speech in question is usually seen as trying to answer a rhetorical problem, thus an analysis is important referring to the problem in its various historical distinctiveness.

In the case of Catilinarian, nevertheless, in a way is complicated in two distinct ways. Firstly, there is darkness of the various events, plans as well as the information which the orator refers to in his speeches. This has given room for critics to come up with a huge number of peripheral exigencies inspiring Cicero plus a varied set of realistic roles of the orator’s speeches. It has also given room for skepticism to be used as a tool of undermining all the positive arguments made on the events which lead Cicero to give his speeches. Secondly, there is a challenge that the historical situations in a way do not fit together as far as one is concerned with production of important as well as abrupt external rhetorical problem which should be given a clear practical answer.

The study of  both Cicero's social as well as political contemplation has regularly been acceptable, even amongst those who  tend to dismiss him like a theorist of insignificant depth as well as  a politician who carry little influence, by the massive persuasions his  various writings on the named above areas had in ancient times as well as in later years. Less generally accepted fact, nevertheless, is that Cicero's rhetoric was as well extremely powerful not simply in later years but as well as in the seminal era right away after his passing away.

The collapse from support of Ciceronian episodic style, even throughout the final piece of the Cicero profession, has misguided a lot of people into assuming that the effects of Ciceronian rhetoric in the beginning days of the ‘principate’ were insignificant. However, this is definitely not the truth. Similar to the rational works, the various speeches by Cicero involved an essential piece of the scholarly legacy of the Roman leaders in the opening century B.C. It only takes one to look at the work of Livy to observe how systematically the various speeches were somehow assimilated in the various writings done by the Augustan historian who was born quite a few years following Cicero's death. It is clear, subsequently, that if one is to comprehend precisely the huge appeal that Augustus as well as his followers based their argument on, we have to investigate these sources the said appeals in the belatedly democracy along by means of the effort of the accredited master of accepted dialogue during that era (Corbett, pg1).

However, it is not simply the power of Cicero's rhetoric on precedent times that prove it is valuable of our consideration; Cicero's various speeches have some things that they do train us regarding the ability of influence in our personal occasion. The hasty collapse of authoritarian systems plus their substitution by regimes reliant on mass consent, has recently cast a severe illumination on the ways by which elites create well-liked accord and win extensive support.

In his catilinam speeches Cicero uses emotional appeal in order to win the support of the citizens. He describes Catiline as person who is after power as well as wealth. He uses these types of worlds to win the support of the people on the reasons behind the exile of Catiline. He also tells the city to rejoice in one of his speeches because their city had been saved from what was to be a bloody rebellion. This describes the usage of emotional appeal by politicians over the history to win the support of their followers in times of trouble. This is one of the styles that Aristotelian theory advocates for orators used in order to persuade their audience. The speeches try to appeal politically as well as on humanitarian grounds. Cicero uses these in his oration and he end up winning the support of the audience on the issues at hand.

This shows that it up to the orators to ensure that their speeches appeal emotionally to the intended audience. This is one major secret that Cicero has used in his Citilinarian speeches which are political in nature. Therefore, for politicians to win the support of their audience they have to identify issues that can help in winning their audience emotionally and incorporate them in their speeches. The ability of the orator to appeal emotionally to the audience is one of the signs that one is a good retort.

Another aspect that is used by Cicero in his speeches is his ability to rationally appeal to his audience. He uses facts to base his argument on poor governance in his state. He presents the evidence to show how the city was saved from bloody rebellion by showing that those who were the accomplices of Catiline did confess their crimes. This shows the ability of Cicero as an orator to use facts in order to appeal to his audience.

This is something that should be embraced by other political orators where they base their arguments on tangible evidence. By doing so they will be in a position to rationally appeal to their people. In writing one should use rational appeals in order to win the support of the audience. When one is able to win his audience he can easily sell his ideas to them. The two theories of rhetoric argue that an orator should have the ability to appeal to his audience rationally. In the analysis Cicero uses this form of appeal to make an impact in Rome through his speeches. He is able to make people see the bad side of Catiline by using tangible evidence to prove to his audience that his accusations against Catiline are true and justifiable.

Another aspect of oratory is usage of ethical appeal to win the support of the audience. Cicero uses this form of appeal in his last speech to change the mind of those who were advocating for the Catiline and his accomplishes to be taken to exile. He is able to use the ethical ground to justify the importance of them being executed instead of being taken to exile.

Ethical appeal is one of the most important aspects of Cicero citilinarian speeches that have been used over history by various governments or politicians to justify their course of action. One credibility or trustworthy can be ground under which one can use ethical appeal to win the support from the intended audience of one’s speech.

The Cicero’ speeches have been seen over the history among those speeches that have utilized the concept of good speech and writing by incorporating in them the various essential of a good speech. He is among of the earliest scholars to develop bases of what a good speech should contain. Many orators who have come after this great political orator have based most of their speech developments on the speeches by Cicero (Borchers &Timothy, pg21).

Conclusion

From the above analysis of the Catilinarian speeches in order for the orator to win the support of the audience there are some certain things that he should include in his speech. He should have the ability to persuade the audience to agree with his point of view. In order to achieve this goal the orator must be in a position to use ethical, emotional as well as the rational appeals to convince his audience of his case.

In conclusion, from the catilirinarian speeches one learns the basics of writing and delivering a good speech. It is very important for the essay to appeal to the listener rationally, ethically and emotionally.