Course XXXIII - Teaching 14: Historic Outline of Oratory

Quite rightly you may come to the conclusion that eloquence is the daughter of poetry. Homer sung his immortal Iliad in a time when orators were non-existent as for oratory as the art of persuading, reasoning and debating. But if this is true, it is also true that poetry and oratory have conquered empires.
To find the source of oratory you should not soar to the first ages of the world. On the first ages, language was seemingly fiery and metaphoric, partially because of the scarce number of words, and partially because of the hue that language has to take from the early condition of men stirred up by passions, and victims of strange and new events. But as long as relationships and communication were little frequent, and as long as strength and violence were instruments mainly to settle any dissension, the oratorical art, as persuasion, exposition and conviction, was far of being known.
Therefore, the art of persuasion is of course so natural in man, but oratory did not flourish with the same strength in all times and did not have always the same characteristics.
So, in old days, political oratory prevailed over the rest, and even judicial oratory followed this direction, since causes were related to great concerns of the State –reports about the government of a province, command of an army, administration of public funds, et cetera– today all this is not a common matter in judicial procedures. Sacred oratory excelled in the Middle Ages, and clear oratorical specialties come up just in modern times, prevailing at present their didactic nature in all of them. Main times in oratory may be as follows: Greece, from Pericles until Macedonian and Roman domination; Rome, from Cato until after August; Greek and Latin Fathers of the Church; modern Christian Orators and Parliamentary Oratory, including English and French Revolution.
Greece. As early as epical (and more rightly dramatic) poets lead their characters to deliver speeches, and historians invent and assign to his men of State and Generals certain speeches and harangues that in such and such occasion they had given. So, in Homer’s poems you see heroes and chiefs speaking in oratorical terms, and even poetically.
As in the Iliad and Odyssey, the same happens in Herodotus’ History; this example follows for centuries because Greece, a country ruled and governed by orators, gave great importance to oratory, which later acquired quite great development, especially since the fifth century before Christ.
Over and above any other notable orator, the Greek history speaks of Solon, seemingly the first great orator, of Themistocles in the time of the Median Wars, and of Pericles in the following generation. Solon’s eloquence was grave and severe, but fiery and virile; Themistocles’ eloquence was of abundant and persuasive word; and the eloquence of Pericles –who gave his name to his time–was “fulminating”, as the ancients said.
The literary study of these two great orators of the antiquity –Themistocles and Pericles– is interesting; also, to see what an orator was before rhetoric itself that later had to reduce to detailed rules the exercise of this art, which for the former did not respond to any written rule. In the times of Pericles we find Cleon, Alcibiades, Oethenas and Theramenes, three brilliant orators. Oratory came up as an art and teaching in Sicily , after the expulsion of the tyrants (by 465 b.C.) according to sayings of Aristoteles quoted by Cicero, and took form through Corax and Tisias, the former, true founder of the rhetoric, and the latter –his disciple– wrote a higher treatise than that of his master, which as a second revised and enlarged edition of Corax’ work.
After these writers we find the sophists, who weaken the function of oratory and transform it into an instrument or method to prove everything; for them the concept or meaning of words is important in se, because words lack any values.
The two most important sophists are Protagoras of Abdera (485-411) and Georgias Leontinus (486-380), who is known mainly through Plato, in his “Dialogues”, with quite notable reasoning to confuse sophists; so he causes to see harmful aspects of his art and scoffing at them with delicious comic wit. But, thanks to them, by way of compensation, the Greek creativeness has acquired extreme acuteness and refined language, by considering conscientiously all aspects and meanings of the words.
All those great classical orators remain over and above judicial orators who litigate and political orators. The list of the latter begins with Antiphon –a political and judicial orator– who, in his Tetralogies, offer ideas or matters of each speech behind four different aspects or categories; by constantly studying and serving a select intelligence, Antiphon removed from his speeches heaviness, subtlety, and bad taste, which was in vogue in those days.
Also as judicial orators Andocides (440-390) and the great Lisias acquire fame; Lisias, through h is speech against Eratosthenes –murderer of Polemarcus, brother of the orator– is an excellent model of accusation. And also we must remember Iseus, who had the glory of leading the first steps of Demosthenes.
Over these orators we find Isocrates, who is called the father of oratory, even though he never strove in a tribune. His oratory is reflective, and more than an orator he is a master of orators; he wrote always his speeches so that they serve as models to his disciples. He took particular care of the form, avoided the narrow limits of judicial oratory and the emphatic tone of the tribune, and forged the weapon that Demosthenes was able to wield later.
Demosthenes was the greatest orator of Greece and perhaps of the ancient world; with him the Greek political oratory disappeared along with the freedom of Athens.
His speeches, slowly and calmly composed, were delivered with extraordinary enthusiasm, and later written in order to extend their effect. He dealt matters with quite high aims, which in no way impeded to consider details of military organization and public administration. As for the form, his system was not fixed, and we find in his speeches short sentences, mordent and long sentences full of clauses and thoughts. Nobody surpassed him in the art of persuading the audience, and the greatest orators of all times are formed by reading his speeches. Along with such a great orator, we find brilliant orators like the witty and spiritual Hippiades and the austere Lycurgus, and in front of him, his rival Aeschines, with opposite qualities to those of Demosthenes; after Aeschines, and far behind, Dinarcus, and then, Demades, endowed with fine irony.
According to Cicero in his book “About Learned Orators”, prior to be entirely vanished when the people stopped being free, the Greek oratory persisted through the illustrious tribune Demetrius Falereus (350-285 b.C.), whose speeches are unknown, and through Theophrastus, the last orator of free Greece. Much later, in the first century of our age, Dion, also called “Chrysostom” or “Golden Mouth”, tried to renew and rejuvenate ancient ideas by taking Demosthenes as his model.
Rome: Even though Romans were less endowed than the Greek as for art and literature, circumstances of political life forced them to cultivate oratory.
In the beginning, as long as they did not know Greece, Roman eloquence was gross and tough and, for this reason, naive and passionate.
The Gracchi y and the old Cato were not formed at schools of the Greek rhetors but, in spite of it, they were able to move and persuade. Their form might be tough, but ultimately was excellent, and when rhetors of Greece opened schools in Rome, the Roman orators acquired at once certain missing qualities. Political and judicial types were the most significant. Main characters of the judicial type were “urbanitas” and “gravitas”. The history of Roman oratory is divided into three periods, and the center of them is Cicero.
The pre-Ciceronian period includes Fabius, with sweet and elegant speech and manners; Scipio, distinguished by his vigorous and noble speech; Labeus, Galba, Emilius Lepidus, the two Lucii, Spurius, Mummius and Carbo; Tiberius Gracchus, with impetuous and vehement words; Lentulus, Decius, Drusus, Flaminius, Curius, Rutilius, Scaurus and Caius Graccus. In the latter one finds strong and vigorous dialectics along with a passionate speech; so his speeches aim at the intelligence and heart. And as judicial orators, Marcus Cornelius Cathegus, with a simple but quite persuasive strength; Cato the Censor, concise, meaningful and intense; Lucius Licinius Crasus and Marcus Antonius (grandfather of the triunvir); according to Marcus Tullius Cicero they were the first in Rome to raise eloquence to the level of Greece.
Cicero, a giant figure in the classical period of Roman literature, followed the example of other predecessors and the teachings of the Greek; during three years he traveled through Greece and Asia Minor in order to perfect himself in the oratorical art. He was a disciple of Molo. Of his famous judicial speeches, we must remember: pro Roscio Amerino, accused of parricide; pro Aulo Cluentio, accused of poisoning: pro Milone, accused of murdering Clodius; and pro Quinto Ligorio, an exiled Pompeian citizen. His always memorable political speechs are three about the agrarian Law, against Servilius Ruffus, who demanded certain distribution of Italian fields; four admirable oratorical pieces against Catilin, where the rhetor even gets carried away by fury; and fourteen philippics against Marcus Antonius, where he tries to confound his enemy at all costs. There are five speeches against Verres, partially judicial and partially political, which describe the social state of Rome, but Cicero seemingly delivered just the first of them.
Like all great orators of the antiquity, Cicero would prepare his speeches beforehand, and Tyro, his manumitted servant –seemingly the inventor of the shorthand– was copying Cicero’s speeches as long and he delivered them. Later Cicero would read, correct and publish them.
In “Brutus”, Cicero tells about Hortensius, a contemporary who rivaled with him, that his word was brilliant, fiery and vivid, and his style even more live and pathetic, as well as his action, and that he was endowed with an amazing memory, painstaking skill, high and clear exposition, fluent language, and sweet and sonorous voice. In the same golden period of Roman oratory we find: Calvus, with concise, nervous and pure, grave and firm style, like that of Athenian orators, but too much neat and elaborated; Asinius Polio, famous for his improvisations, with a more detailed and harmonious style than Calvus’; Caesar, with majestic diction; and Brutus, characterized by his gravity. However, all of them shared a virile, pure and vigorous eloquence.
After Cicero’s century, eloquence started declining through a declamatory style –redundant and stilted– and the young were sent to Asia, where rhetors taught them a new oratory. The Asian school, partially Greek subtlety and partially Western pomp, was seemingly quite attractive, but actually of bad taste: neither natural nor simple, but certainly diffuse and ostentatious, would try to astonish and surprise with out-of-the-way metaphors and superfluous adornments.
Of this period, in the time of Nero, just Domicius Apher deserves especial mention: he was fiery and intense, and his speeches, with gracious and ironic remarks, were always heard with pleasure. Along with him, although on lower level, Crispus Pasienus, Decimus Lellius and Julius Africanus. Later, Plinius the Young, disciple of Quintillian, and Tacitus, the historian; but in this time the forum was so dissolute that Plinius was ashamed of the depraved and effeminate style used in the Court of the Centumvirs, and Martial would ridicule the craze for useless quotations and out-of-the-way digressions. Of the quite few cultivators of the pure Roman eloquence, there are some Spaniards, like M. Portius Latron and Seneca. The last notable Roman orator is the eloquent defender of the paganism, Quintus Aurelius Simmacus, who contended with Saint Ambrose about re-establishing the altar of the Victory at the Senate.
Greek and Latin Fathers of the Church. They should be taken as forerunners of the sacred orator, who through Christian preaching reached a higher artistic level than the profane oratory in those days, along with the prophetic books of the Bible, which are true speech by virtue of their purpose and form. To characterize and define the oratory of the prophets you should keep in mind that it cannot be implied in any religious oratorical type definitely and specifically, since this oratory is partially religious and partially political. Those men were filled with spirit of God, and not only announced the advent of the Messiah and the coming change, but also political troubles that the people of Israel had to undergo; they warned and admonished this people regarding their behavior, by prophesizing a foreign invasion, the loss of their freedom, and all characteristic evils of decadent peoples. That is why, on the next Teaching, when we deal with this point, this oratory has been defined as “supernatural” for its very nature.
Since the first times of the Christian Church, the sacred eloquence was being formed and developed. The following orators deserve especial quotation: Saint Justine and Clement of Alexandria, who delivered their sermons in Greek, and Tertulian, Arnobius of Licca and Lactantius, in Latin. The greatest figure, before the fourth century of our age –the golden century of the sacred eloquence– was Saint Hieronymus, encyclopedic man, great scholar and genial writer.
In fourth century great propagandists of Christ’s teachings come up and the most outstanding are: Saint Basil, who celebrates greatly and severely the power of God; Saint Gregory of Nyssa, whose exhortation to love the poor has been imitated by the best sacred orators; and Saint John Chrysostomos (“Golden Mouth”), who renewed considerably the classical forms of the Greek eloquence by creating a sort of universal language understandable and pleasant to everybody.
“Orators who precede Saint John Chrysostomos are orators of the fight”, say the writer Navarro y Ledesma. “Saint John is the Orator of the Victory”.
In the Latin Church, besides Saint Hilary, Saint Ambrose and Saint Hieronymus, the outstanding figure is Saint Augustine, a true genius of the Christian religious expression; in spite of some defects of his age, he is one of the highest intelligences, fillings and ideas that ever existed.
These well-known orators, who lived in a time of continuous fight and riots, would use a fiery and passionate eloquence, which sometimes was simple and popular, sometimes elegant and philosophical, and sometimes political.
In fifth and sixth century, Saint Leo and Saint Gregory (apostle of the barbarian) took the lead, respectively, as for the Christian eloquence. And in Spain, at the top of the list you find Just, Severe, Saint Leander and Saint Isidore.
Modern Christian orators. The invasion of the barbarian caused the extinction of the eloquence along with all other literary types and fine arts, which re-appear much later.
But in eleventh century there are qualified orators gathering multitudes and, therefore, eloquent in their own way; this is why Peter the Hermit and other preachers of the Crusades thrust thousands of men toward the conquest of the Holy Sepulcher. Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Domingo de Guzmán and the Beatus Jordan of Saxony congregated multitudes and universities with their sermons.
The Renaissance did not revive the classical eloquence and, although the Reformation and its enemies, and even Savonarola are fighting with the word, their oratorical forms have little or nothing of rhetoric. Just on the eighteen century oratory acquires again its lost brilliance and splendor, and the French eloquence took the lead in matter.
During the kingship of Louis XIV, the sublime Bossuet, the fiery Bourdalone, the witty Flechier, the sweet Fenelon, the passionate Massillon, and many other have flourished; they did not appear by chance simultaneously: the sacred pulpit is enlightened in this way because those men –indubitably endowed with natural talents– were exercising rules set up by Francis of Sales, by the father of the Ligendes, and by some other Jesuits, and by the abbot of Saint-Cyran and abbots of Port Royal, because all of them coincided as for the essence of an orator.
In Germany, the most famous orators of the Reformation were Luther and Melanchton, and in England, as sacred orators, Tillotson and Blair. In Italy, the figure of the Father Segnery is sufficient to raise the sacred oratory to a brilliancy that, except Spain, some few nations were able to surpass. In Portugal, we find the outstanding figure of the Father Antonio Vieira, one of the glories of the Company of Jesus.
Although the sacred eloquence prevails over the rest of oratorical types, also the public oratory and judicial oratory wake up and gather strength; so, a new form or oratory is born: the academic oratory. The academic oratory offer few meritorious models, but one of them is the admirable reply of Racine to the speech of reception delivered by Corneille.
Parliamentarian oratory. First epoch: The English Revolution. For a right evaluation, it is necessary to know that there were three different schools, related to three different types of orators. One of them was the witty and elegant school of the Court: seemingly Shakespeare belongs to it, and Walter Scott wrote a witty parody in one of his romances; another school, that of the ancient philosophy, was strange or, rather, hostile to ideas of the time; and there was another eloquence related to the idea reformation everywhere, although still rude and imperfect.
With approximate truth, the English revolution produced nothing more than two great orators: Strafford and Cromwell. Strafford, a great and passionate man, later executed, underwent sorrowful deceptions and the weakness and ingratitude of Charles I. In spite of all this, he was quite brave and defended himself by means of a wonderful speech against thirteen different accusers during seventeen days. Cromwell was the interpreter and god of the puritan eloquence: Puritanism of virtue, detachment and martyrdom.
Voltaire, with a splendid speech praises the eloquence of Cromwell and finally says: “Just one movement of that hand that had won so many battles and killed so many Royalists, would produce more effect than every sentence of Cicero”.
In the well-known Pitt and the opulent Fox, their eloquence was more brilliant and advantageous. The latter, at age 19, is appointed by the Parliament, but was able to get rid of all this and several times made hear his voice by defending the law and Catholic people.
Second epoch: French Revolution. The greatest picture of modern eloquence can be found in the French Revolution, an event that, along with Luther’s Reformation, has shared the admiration of the world. Which was its character? Like that of Poland, amid riots, anarchy and war? Like that of Greece and Rome? Not at all. Its type was new, particularly in the wake of its literary, philosophic and esoteric style.
This new type of eloquence is greater, more daring and more systematic than the rest of eloquence modes so far known; Mirabeau, Virgniadu, Barnave, Desmoulins, Robespierre, and so many others acquainted the world with the vividness and strength of that word inflamed by ideals.
Also military men like Napoleon, politicians like Royèn-Collard, Benjamin Constant, the General Foy, Casimiro Ferier. Thiers, Guizot, Lamartine, Jocqueville, Montalembert and Gambetta, and lawyers like Berager, Dufaure and Favre occupy a high position in the history of the French oratorical art.
As for the Spanish parliamentarian oratory, the most representative at the end of nineteenth century and beginning of twentieth century there were at the same time men of constructive politics in Spain. Among others, Salustiano de Olózaga (1805-1873); Antonio Cánovas del Castillo (1828-1897); Cristino Martos y Balbi (1830-1893); Francisco Pi y Margall (1824-1901; Nicolás Salmerón y Alonso (1838-1908); José Canalejas Méndez (1854-1912); Juan Donoso Cortés (1809-1853); Emilio Castelar y Ripoll (1832-1899); Juan Vázquez de Mella y Fanjul (1861-1928); José Echegaray e Isaguirre (1833-1916); Segismundo Moret y Prendergast (1838-1913); Antonio Maura Montaner (1853-1925); Melquíades Alvarez González Posada (1864-1936); and Ramón Nocedal y Romea (d. 1907).