Brutus

Brutus (or De claris oratoribus), treatise by Cicero ((1) 5) on eminent Roman orators. Written in 46 BC with the purpose of defending Cicero's own oratorical practice, it gives interesting details of his early life and training as an orator and his gradual rise to the highest position. It purports to record a recent conversation between Cicero, M. Junius Brutus (see previous entry), and Atticus, in which Cicero ends an introductory section on Greek orators by referring to the Attic, Asianic, and Rhodian schools of oratory, commending some of the qualities of the Asianists as well as of the Atticists. He reviews the long series of Roman orators from Brutus the Liberator (supposedly consul in 509 BC), but more particularly from Cethēgus, consul in 204 BC, ‘the marrow of persuasion’ according to Ennius, to his own times, giving a brief description of each.

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