The Roman World of Cicero's De Oratore (review)

This is an important and significant book. Elaine Fantham, one of our most knowledgeable and distinguished Latinists, brings to bear her considerable learning and long experience in teaching De Oratore to offer a work that will soon become a standard for those interested in Ciceronian oratory and the world in which it operated. The past two decades have seen a resurgence of interest in Cicero's masterful dialogue on the ideal orator, an interest that was certainly rekindled—perhaps awakened—in many by the publication of the magisterial, multivolume commentary of Leeman, Pinkster, et alii, beginning in 1981 (fifth and final volume currently under preparation by J. Wisse et al.). Only a few years ago (2001), Oxford University Press published a new translation (the first in nearly sixty years), with extensive introduction, annotation, and appendices, by May and Wisse. The present volume is, in a sense, a logical extension of these efforts. Working under the conviction that De Oratore is a key to Roman life and values in the late republic, Fantham uses the dialogue as a lens through which to view various aspects of Cicero's world. The result is a book full of valuable information and insights, not only about this most unique of all ancient treatises on the art of oratory, but also about the late republican society in which Cicero lived and moved.

Those who are expecting a systematic, section-by-section examination of De Oratore should consult Leeman-Pinkster, May and Wisse, or the more general sort of analysis as found in one of Kennedy's handbooks. In contrast, Fantham's goal is to offer a companion to the dialogue, organizing chapters around several major topics found in the treatise, "to ask what Cicero has written (its content), how he has written it, and for what purpose" (vi). Hence, after introductory chapters on Cicero's personal circumstances at the time of composition and the chief protagonists of the dialogue, successive chapters deal, for example, with topics such as Cicero's response to Plato's Gorgias and Phaedrus, the place of Roman civil law in the dialogue, Latin literature and historical writing, Cicero's debt to Aristotle, the application of wit and humor in oratory, eloquence in the senate and contio, theories of diction and style, and the techniques of oratorical delivery. The structure of chapter 5, "The Orator and the Law," illustrates Fantham's general approach. After situating the topic of law and the courts within the broad context of ancient Athens and more especially of the elite society of Cicero's Rome, the role of civil law in the dialogue is explored. But in order to appreciate that connection more fully, it is necessary to understand some other crucial elements; thus, explication of civil procedures, the hazards and complexities of civil litigation, and the iudicia publica and the quaestiones perpetuae is included, in which Fantham skillfully weaves together information outside of the dialogue with references to and within it to provide a fairly comprehensive picture of Roman law in Cicero's world.

Marshalling critical analysis in such a way is a complex and difficult task, but Fantham, relying on a crisp, engaging style and a good sense of her reading audience, is highly successful. Indeed, students who are new to De Oratore, along with scholars whose expertise might lie far outside oratory and rhetoric, will find this approach particularly salutary; but even readers who are intimately familiar with the dialogue and the Ciceronian corpus in general will learn much from these pages and be pleased by many of the connections that Fantham makes. For example, the discussion of Cicero's response to Plato's views on rhetoric and oratory (chapter 3, "Constructing the Dialogue: The Challenge of Plato") provides both a helpful introduction to Cicero's use of Plato in fashioning his own dialogue, and also a succinct and thought-provoking analysis of the relationship of Platonic views to his own.

The volume...