Brutus
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~83,600 words · 397 passages
Cite this work
- APACicero. (n.d.). Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished S [Brutus]. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/cicero-s-brutus-or-history-of-famous-orators-also-his-orator-or-accomplished-s
- MLACicero. Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished S [Brutus]. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/cicero-s-brutus-or-history-of-famous-orators-also-his-orator-or-accomplished-s.
- ChicagoCicero. Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished S [Brutus]. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/cicero-s-brutus-or-history-of-famous-orators-also-his-orator-or-accomplished-s.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The English translation printing the 'Brutus' and the 'Orator' together in one volume: the two rhetorical works of 46 BC.
Context and history
The two works were born together and this volume keeps them together: the 'Brutus' is the history of Roman oratory, orator by orator, written when Caesar was already dictator and the courts no longer decided anything; the 'Orator' is the portrait of the perfect orator who Cicero admits has never existed, with the three styles — to prove, to please, to move — and the great closing discussion of prose rhythm. Both are an answer to the young Atticists who accused him of inflation, and both are dedicated to Brutus. This version is for the reader; the Latin originals of both are also in the catalogue, and scholarly citation should point to them.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
of the Oracle, which promised the supremacy to him who should first salute his mother? That Brutus, who concealed the most consummate abilities under the appearance of a natural defect of understanding? Who dethroned and banished a powerful monarch, the son of an illustrious sovereign? Who settled the State, which he had rescued from arbitrary power, by the appointment of an annual magistracy, a regular system of laws, and a free and open course of justice? And who abrogated the authority of his colleague, that he might rid the city of the smallest vestige of the _regal_ name?--Events, which could never have been produced without exerting the powers of Persuasion!--We are likewise informed that a few years after the expulsion of the Kings, when the Plebeians retired to the banks of the Anio, about three miles from the city, and had possessed themselves of what is called The _sacred_ Mount, M. Valerius the dictator appeased their fury by a public harangue; for which he was afterwards rewarded with the highest posts of honour, and was the first Roman who was distinguished by the surname of _Maximus_. Nor can L. Valerius Potitus be supposed to have been destitute of the powers of utterance, who, after the odium which had been excited against the Patricians by the tyrannical government of the _Decemviri_, reconciled the people to the Senate, by his prudent laws and conciliatory speeches. We may likewise suppose, that