Cicero's De Oratore: Gaining Skills to Become an Orator

Cicero, similarly to Plato and Aristotle, concerned himself with the art of rhetoric and what it means to be a good orator. In the dialogues of De Oratore, Cicero uses the voice of L. Licinius Crassus to demonstrate his broad view on what oratory should stand for and what orators must strive to achieve. According to Cicero, a good orator must possess knowledge of other sciences as well as natural talent, eloquence and grace in his style of speech. Because this is difficult to achieve by ordinary people, Cicero reasons that there are not many men who can be thought of as orators. In the first two books of De Oratore, he demonstrates that to master oratory one must reach a cultural ideal set forth by the demand of both knowledge and style.

The concept of oratory as a cultural ideal emerges at the beginning of Book I of De Oratore. Here, Cicero discusses what he believes to be the abilities of a good orator. To deserve a title of an orator, one must demonstrate an ability to speak "with knowledge, method, charm, and retentive memory, combining with these qualifications a certain distinctive bearing" (49). In order to reach this ideal, one must have natural talent, as well as passion and ability to study many subjects. In addition, an orator who possesses these qualities will be able to learn the facts of any science and speak on it better then those man who have developed it. Since this is the case, both science and philosophy look to rhetoric for help in expressing their claims (47-53). This clearly demonstrates the importance that Cicero believed rhetoric has on the Roman culture. It follows that only the person who is "accomplished in all those arts that benefit the well-bred" can be called an orator (53). Cicero describes this notion as an ideal, portraying Crassus as someone who comes close to possessing the qualities of a finished orator, but also as someone who admits that he still has a lot to learn about the art of rhetoric (57).

The ideal of the finished orator is reinforced toward the end of Book I, as Cicero demonstrates the demands and expectations of oratory on its students. By understanding what a finished orator must be able to achieve, we now need to understand how someone can reach this position. Crassus states that an orator must be "rich in every merit" (83). An orator must possess natural talent, which will provide for his eloquence and grace as he is addressing his audience. He also must receive proper training in rhetoric, as well as other sciences in order to claim possession of facts in subjects on which he is speaking. Through the voice of Crassus, Cicero asserts that "in an orator we must demand the subtlety of the logician, the thoughts of the philosopher, a diction almost poetic, a lawyer's memory, a tragedian's voice, and the bearing almost of the consummate actor" (89-91). Because a substantial effort goes into meeting the demands and expectations of oratory, Crassus argues that finished orators are rare. He also admits that even he is "far removed" from this perfection (91). Cicero demonstrates that qualifications of a finished orator are difficult to obtain and, as such, they represent an ideal one can strive to achieve.

After understanding the notion of a finished orator, by the qualities he must posses and by the manner in which he expresses himself, we must now look to Cicero's own voice in Book II in order to understand why such a position is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to acquire. Cicero argues that oratory, "the art of speaking well, that is to say, of speaking with knowledge, skill and elegance, has no delimited territory, within whose borders it is enclosed and confined" (201). This makes the task of being a finished orator especially problematical, as the subject matter on which one is required to speak can be anything at all that can provide concern for anyone in the human race. Since orator can be presented with any subject at any time, he must be able to speak about it or "he must abandon the name of eloquent" (201). Cicero realizes that by the virtue of being an orator, a man is held against higher standards than scientists or philosophers. He finds this to be the very core that drives men to the art of oratory. He recognizes that there are man who have "great reputation in oratory, without the fullest universal knowledge" (201). Since no one is really able to raise to the definition of a finished orator as imposed by Cicero because of their inability to obtain as wide of a knowledge base as he requires, Cicero again proves that a finished orator is merely a perfection to be longed for.

On several occasions in De Oratore, Cicero demonstrates that to master rhetoric one is simply trying to achieve a cultural ideal. For one person to posses a wide range of qualities and knowledge on any subject as Cicero insists, as well as to be able to express himself well is virtually impossible. However, Cicero recognizes great orators and does not assert any negative notions against them. He is simply demonstrating that there is always more to be learned from both rhetoric and other sciences that will provide for a more educated and more eloquent orator.