Orators and Empire: Aper's First Speech in Tacitus' Dialogus De Oratoribus

Presentation Type

Oral and/or Visual Presentation

Presenter Major(s)

Classics

Mentor Information

Charles Pazdernik

Department

Classics

Location

Kirkhof Center 2216

Start Date

10-4-2013 12:00 AM

End Date

10-4-2013 12:00 AM

Keywords

Culture, Freedom and Control, Historical Perspectives, Philosophy/ Literature

Abstract

Tacitus' Dialogus de oratoribus is a literary reflection upon the rewards and the perils of practicing high-profile forensic rhetoric under the gaze of the emperor at Rome during the second half of the first century CE. One of the interlocutors in the dialogue, Marcus Aper, delivers a speech (Dial. 5-10) espousing the conventional wisdom of his day, that to be an orator is to exercise power and to practice a discipline "richer in advantages" than any other (ad utilitatem fructuosius, 5.3). Yet in the larger context of the work and its dramatic setting, Tacitus undermines these sentiments. His Aper, in this speech especially, unwittingly and ironically exemplifies how political realities under an imperial autocracy have degraded oratory as a vocation and a profession. Far from setting up Aper as a straw man, however, Tacitus permits him to make a compelling case, and in so doing offers a demonstration of his own rhetorical skill and versatility.

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Apr 10th, 12:00 AM Apr 10th, 12:00 AM

Orators and Empire: Aper's First Speech in Tacitus' Dialogus De Oratoribus

Kirkhof Center 2216

Tacitus' Dialogus de oratoribus is a literary reflection upon the rewards and the perils of practicing high-profile forensic rhetoric under the gaze of the emperor at Rome during the second half of the first century CE. One of the interlocutors in the dialogue, Marcus Aper, delivers a speech (Dial. 5-10) espousing the conventional wisdom of his day, that to be an orator is to exercise power and to practice a discipline "richer in advantages" than any other (ad utilitatem fructuosius, 5.3). Yet in the larger context of the work and its dramatic setting, Tacitus undermines these sentiments. His Aper, in this speech especially, unwittingly and ironically exemplifies how political realities under an imperial autocracy have degraded oratory as a vocation and a profession. Far from setting up Aper as a straw man, however, Tacitus permits him to make a compelling case, and in so doing offers a demonstration of his own rhetorical skill and versatility.