De Partitione Oratoria
- Language:
- Latin
- 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:
- ~13,900 words · 66 passages
Cite this work
- APACicero. (n.d.). De Partitione Oratoria. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/de-partitione-oratoria
- MLACicero. De Partitione Oratoria. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/de-partitione-oratoria.
- ChicagoCicero. De Partitione Oratoria. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/de-partitione-oratoria.
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
A rhetoric manual in dialogue form between Cicero and his son, in questions and answers.
Context and history
Made for teaching, not for display: the text where the whole edifice of classical rhetoric is laid out most plainly and driest. Much copied in the Middle Ages for exactly that reason.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
significat oratoris ipsius amabiles mores: qui exprimuntur aut significando iudicio ipsius et animo humano ac liberali, aut inflexione sermonis cum aut augendi alterius aut minuendi sui causa alia dici ab oratore, alia existimari videntur, idque comitate fieri magis quam vanitate. Sed multa sunt suavitatis praecepta quae orationem aut magis obscuram aut minus probabilem faciant; itaque etiam hoc loco nobis est ipsis quid causa postulet iudicandum. [] C.F. Reliquum est igitur ut dicas de conversa oratione atque mutata. C.P. Est itaque id genus totum situm in commutatione verborum: quae simplicibus in verbis ita tractatur ut aut ex verbo dilatetur aut in verbum contrahatur oratio--ex verbo cum aut proprium aut idem significans aut factum verbum in plura verba diducitur, ex oratione cum aut definitio ad unum verbum revocatur aut assumpta verba removentur aut circuitus diriguntur aut in coniunctione fit unum verbum ex duobus; [] in coniunctis autem verbis triplex adhiberi potest commutatio, non verborum sed ordinis tantummodo, ut cum semel dictum sit directe sicut natura ipsa tulerit, invertatur ordo et idem quasi sursum versus retroque dicatur, deinde idem intercise atque permixte. Eloquendi autem exercitatio maxime in hoc toto convertendi genere versatur. [] C.F. Actio igitur sequitur, ut opinor. C.P. Est ita: quae quidem oratori et cum rerum et cum verborum momentis commutanda maxime est. Facit enim et dilucidam orationem et illustrem et probabilem et suavem non verbis sed varietate vocum, motu corporis, vultu, quae plurimum valebunt si cum orationis genere consentient eiusque vim ac varietatem subsequentur.
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