Cicero's Philippics and their Demosthenic model : the rhetoric of crisis / Cecil W. Wooten.

Incluye referencias bibliográficas e índices.

1. Introduction: The Rhetoric of Crisis -- 2. Style and Argumentation in the Speeches of Demosthenes -- 3. Cicero and Demosthenes: Nec Converti ut Interpres, Sed ut Orator -- 4.The Disjunctive Mode: Philippics III, IV, V, and VI -- 5. La Rapide Simplicite de Demosthenes: Philippic VII -- 6. Style and Narrative Technique: Philippics VIII, IX, X, and XI -- 7. The Rhetorical Situation in the Philippics: Philippics XII, XIII, and XIV -- 8. Conclusion: Their Finest Hour.

Although Cicero's Phillipics are his most mature speeches, they have received little attention as works of oratory. On the other hand, scholars in this century have considered Cicero's attitudes toward and dependence on Demosthenes to be an issue of importance. Cecil Wooten brings together these two concerns, linking Cicero's use of Demosthenes as a model in the Phillipics to precise analyses of style, rhetorical modulation, and narrative technique. In doing so he defines and demonstrates the effectiveness of a type of oratory that he terms "the rhetoric of crisis."
Characteristic of such rhetoric is the polarization of a conflict into a dichotomy between good and evil, right and wrong. The orator adopts a stance in which he is obsessed with the struggle, with victory, and with the preservation of a tradition. He defines his present crisis in terms of patterns that have appeared in the past, which means that he is likely to choose from the past a model for his own response to the crisis.

In Demosthenes, Cicero found a statesman that had faced a similar political situation. Demosthenes' speeches were directed against Philip of Macedon, whose expanding empire threatened the survival of the Greek city-states. Antony posed an equally severe threat to the Roman republic, and Cicero therefore turned to Demosthenes' speeches as a model for his own. The oratory of both was forged during a period of supreme crisis, at a critical turning point in civilization.