I found this in my drafts for some reason it never got published ?

“What greater intellectual treat than the brilliant discourse of a perfect scholar?”

In Cicero “De Oratore”, Cicero is confident that the power an orator possesses is incomparable to any other discipline.  He equates the knowledge an orator posses’ to the knowledge of the most successful men.  He implies that all other subjects can be mastered, but very few are as skilled as an orators because they must have a vast knowledge of all disciplines. He makes an interesting argument stating, any man can master the sciences even though it’s means of study are objects that are difficult to find. However, only few can master a discipline such as rhetoric which ironically is more accessible because it is simply conversation and dialogue that is found in everyday human interaction. By making these claims, it appears Cicero is arguing that rhetoric is a natural ability that some may never possess. I feel some individuals do have a natural talent for oratory. Many distinct political figures are known for their eloquent speech, while others who are equally educated, but are not strong speakers.

Cicero makes many original arguments, but his sentence structure and prose appear to be equally distinct.  The breaks in his writing mirror the breaks an individual would take when speaking. The Latin translation uses a different approach to language, one that elaborates on endings and story telling. Cicero also appears to have a sarcastic, arrogant tone to many of his arguments. Many of the rhetoricians such as Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle appear to have a sarcastic tone.

Cicero also interjects humor as a means of persuasion, which he feels is important to orators. His position on the discipline of rhetoric appears to favor an aesthetic approach. This is implied in his argument of eloquence, “Eloquence in fact, requires many things: a wide knowledge of very many subjects (verbal fluency without this being worthless and even ridiculous) a style, too, carefully formed not merely by selection, but by arrangement of words, and a thorough familiarity with all the feelings which natures has given man”. In his description dialogue appears to be an art form, which takes extreme talent. It is an encapsulation of many forms of knowledge. In today’s society, many people use visual rhetoric as a means of persuasion. Words are used for messages and require an aesthetic quality to capture the eyes of consumers. Since rhetorical strategies are so pervasive in our culture, it could be argued that many use words as an art form.