Auteur: Goodman, Rob
Titre: “Naked” Speech in Late Republican Rome
Revue/Collection: in Ballacci, Giuseppe, Goodman, Ron (eds.), Populism, Demagoguery, and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective, OUP, 384 p.
Annèe edition: 2024
Pages: 78-102
Mots-clès: Éloquence - Eloquenza - Eloquence, Histoire - Storia - History, Politique - Politica - Politics, Rhétorique - Retorica - Rhetorics, Stylistique et genres littéraires - Stilistica e generi letterari - Stylistics and literary genre
Description: This chapter focuses on Cicero and his contemporaries to offer evidence for the existence and distinctiveness of populist rhetoric in the late Roman republic. In contrast to the claim of an “ideological monotony” in the republic, this chapter argues we can trace the outlines not only of a popularis ideology, but of a popularis style—a style grounded in key assumptions about the relationship between orator and audience. Cicero characterizes the speech of his popularis adversaries as “naked,” casting it as lacking in artifice and control. That assessment, however polemical, points to a recognizable difference in the rhetorical styles on offer to the Roman public. The chapter argues that Cicero conceived of stylistic diversity as a means by which the orator demonstrated responsiveness to the audience. For the populares, by contrast, unaffected speech signaled that the speaker’s identification with the people was so complete that no accommodation was required. [Author]
Sigle auteur: Goodman 2024
Titre: “Naked” Speech in Late Republican Rome
Revue/Collection: in Ballacci, Giuseppe, Goodman, Ron (eds.), Populism, Demagoguery, and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective, OUP, 384 p.
Annèe edition: 2024
Pages: 78-102
Mots-clès: Éloquence - Eloquenza - Eloquence, Histoire - Storia - History, Politique - Politica - Politics, Rhétorique - Retorica - Rhetorics, Stylistique et genres littéraires - Stilistica e generi letterari - Stylistics and literary genre
Description: This chapter focuses on Cicero and his contemporaries to offer evidence for the existence and distinctiveness of populist rhetoric in the late Roman republic. In contrast to the claim of an “ideological monotony” in the republic, this chapter argues we can trace the outlines not only of a popularis ideology, but of a popularis style—a style grounded in key assumptions about the relationship between orator and audience. Cicero characterizes the speech of his popularis adversaries as “naked,” casting it as lacking in artifice and control. That assessment, however polemical, points to a recognizable difference in the rhetorical styles on offer to the Roman public. The chapter argues that Cicero conceived of stylistic diversity as a means by which the orator demonstrated responsiveness to the audience. For the populares, by contrast, unaffected speech signaled that the speaker’s identification with the people was so complete that no accommodation was required. [Author]
Sigle auteur: Goodman 2024
