ANCIENT GREEK & ROMAN SPEECHES

Catalog description

This course will examine the role of verbal argument in ancient culture, focusing on the legal and political orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, the greatest orators of the ancient world. Other sources will include Homer, Greek Drama, Plato, Thucydides and Ovid. We will investigate why disputation was central in the ancient world, what sorts of arguments were thought to be effective, and what rules governed the disputes. One of the things that we share with the ancient world is a fascination with trials. Understanding how the ancients argued, and what they argued about, can tell us something about ourselves.Faculty: D. ROSSELL