Just the introduction to this work alone is worth the price of the book. It has not only an excellent biography of Cicero, but sections on the role of orators in Roman and Greek life, the role of De Oratore in Cicero's life, and extensive commentary on the content and dialogic, conversational form of the book. The introduction also contains extensive background material on the long-standing quarrel between rhetoricians and philosophers and Cicero's position in it.
The authors start by saying: "When Cicero's contemporaries read his De Oratore (literally On the Orator), finished at the end of 55 BC, many of them must have been surprised." Stepping outside the camps of both the philosophers and rhetoricians, Cicero concentrates on the personal skills of the speaker rather than on rules; and as a practical orator, he repeatedly criticizes the impractical, narrow, and rigid patterns of the rhetoricians.
Before Socrates, scholars generally found that knowledge and rhetoric were the same. Socrates was probably an opponent of rhetoric, and this may have led to his execution by the Athenians. This made some of his pupils, and especially Plato, very hostile to rhetoric. As a result there emerged different institutions for both disciplines. There was the Academy founded by Plato, the Peripatos founded by Aristotle, the Stoics founded by Zeno, and Epicureans, founded by Epicurus. Still 300 years later, in Cicero's time, the rivalry between them was lively and fierce.
Cicero wrote they were all wrong: "The ancients had taught there was an amazing sort of communion between speaking and understanding." Like linguists and other scientists today have found, there is no distinction between thought and language. Cicero wrote that Socrates had made a terrible mistake. Separating words from thoughts was like separating the body from the soul--and just as destructive. He wrote: "Words for a distinguished style are impossible without having produced and shaped the thoughts, and no thought can shine clearly without the enlightening power of words."
The unity of speech and knowledge provides the powerful thrust of Cicero's book. At one point, he asks why there are so few really good speakers. He notes that this is "all the more amazing when the study of the other arts as a rule draws upon abstruse and hidden sources, whereas the procedures of oratory lie within everyone's reach, and are concerned with everyday experience and with human nature and speech." Once the peoples of the empire learned of the Greek writings on rhetoric, they "were filled with an incredible zeal for learning all these things....In addition, there were laid before them, just as they are now, the greatest rewards for this pursuit, in terms of influence, power, and prestige."
"Considering all this, who would not rightly be amazed that, in the entire history of generations, of ages, and of communities, such a slight number of orators would be found? The truth of the matter is, however, that this faculty is something greater, and is a combination of more arts and pursuits, than is generally supposed. ...the only conceivable explanation of this scarcity is surely the incredible scope and difficulty of oratory."
Wide, broad knowledge in many subjects are the best preparation for the ideal orator, along with talent, good technique, and years of practice.
Cicero writes: "To begin with, one must acquire knowledge of a very great number of things, for without this a ready flow of words is empty and ridiculous; the language itself must be shaped, not only by the choice of words, but by their arrangement as well; also required is a thorough acquaintance with all the emotions with which nature has endowed the human race, because in soothing or exciting the feelings of the audience the full force of oratory and all its available means must be brought into play. In addition, it is essential to possess a certain esprit and humor, the culture that befits a gentleman, and an ability to be quick and concise in rebuttal as well as attack, combined with refinement, grace, and urbanity."
Cicero writes: "It is my opinion that an orator worthy of this grand title is he who will speak on any subject that occurs and requires verbal exposition in a thoughtful, well-disposed, and distinguished manner, having accurately memorized his speech, while also displaying a certain dignity of delivery."
It is hard to overestimate the importance and significance of this work in the Western canon. A companion book is "Master Tully: Cicero in Tudor England," which shows the dominance of Cicero in Renaissance England. Cicero had a profound effect on the education of the founders of the U.S. who were brought up on Cicero in both English and Latin. Jefferson had 40 of Cicero's works in his library. John Adams, Lincoln, Twain, and Whitman were all direct descendants of Cicero.
This work should also be read together with Cicero's "Brutus or History of Famous Orators: Also His Orator or Accomplished Speaker," which Cicero had intended to be books 4 and 5 of this work.
