Literature and persuasion in Cicero’s “pro Archia”

Author: Berry, Dominic H.
Title: Literature and persuasion in Cicero’s “pro Archia”
Review/Collection: in: Cicero the advocate / ed. by Jonathan G. F. Powell and Jeremy Paterson, X, 448
Place edition: Oxford & New York
Editor: Oxford University Pr.
Year edition: 2004
Pages: 291-311
Keywords: Éloquence - Eloquenza - Eloquence, Stylistique et genres littéraires - Stilistica e generi letterari - Stylistics and literary genre
Review:

Corbeill, “American Journal of Philology”, 2006, 127, (1), 144-149 – May, “Classical Review”, 2006, NS, 56, (1), 98-100

Description: Pro Archia has been described as undoubtedly the least typical forensic speech of Cicero. Cicero's client is not, as so often, a prominent Roman aristocrat accused of violence, bribery, or extortion, but a Syrian poet whose claim to Roman citizenship was disputed. This chapter reviews the historical circumstances of Archias' trial, and then discusses the speech itself and some of the issues it raises, especially that of why the encomium of literature is included, and how it contributes to the defence. The chapter examines the style used by Cicero in Pro Archia and asks what it was about this particular case that led him to adopt such a style. It argues that Pro Archia is an exercise in persuasion. [Author]  [Powell & Paterson 2004]
Works:
Author initials: Berry 2004