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Declamation (from the Latin: declamatio) is an artistic form of public speaking. It is a dramatic oration designed to express through articulation, emphasis and gesture the full sense of the text being conveyed. [1]
In Ancient Rome, declamation was a genre of ancient rhetoric and a mainstay of the Roman higher education system. It was separated into two component subgenres, the controversia , speeches of defense or prosecution in fictitious court cases, and the suasoria , in which the speaker advised a historical or legendary figure as to a course of action. Roman declamations survive in four corpora: the compilations of Seneca the Elder and Calpurnius Flaccus, as well as two sets of controversiae, the Major Declamations and Minor Declamations spuriously attributed to Quintilian.
Declamation had its origin in the form of preliminary exercises for Greek students of rhetoric: works from the Greek declamatory tradition survive in works such as the collections of Sopater and Choricius of Gaza. Of the remaining Roman declamations the vast majority are controversiae; only one book of suasoriae survive, that being in Seneca the Elder's collection. The controversiae as they currently exist normally consist of several elements: an imaginary law, a theme which introduced a tricky legal situation, and an argument which records a successful or model speech on the topic. It was normal for students to employ illustrative exempla from Roman history and legend (such as were collected in the work of Valerius Maximus) to support their case. Important points were often summed up via pithy epigrammatic statements (sententiae). Common themes include ties of fidelity between fathers and sons, heroes and tyrants in the archaic city, and conflicts between rich and poor men.
As a critical part of rhetorical education, declamation's influence was widespread in Roman elite culture. In addition to its didactic role, it is also attested as a performative genre: public declamations were visited by such figures as Pliny the Elder, Asinius Pollio, Maecenas, and the emperor Augustus. [2] The poet Ovid is recorded by Seneca the Elder as being a star declaimer, and the works of the satirists Martial and Juvenal, as well as the historian Tacitus, reveal a substantial declamatory influence. [3]
Later examples of declamation can be seen in the work of the sixth century AD bishop and author Ennodius.
In the eighteenth century, a classical revival of the art of public speaking, often referred to as The Elocution Movement occurred in Britain. While elocution focused on the voice—articulation, diction, and pronunciation—declamation focused on delivery. Rather than a narrow focus on rhetoric, or persuasion, practitioners involved in the movement focused on improving speech and gesture [4] to convey the full sentiment of the message. [1] Traditionally, practitioners of declamation served in the clergy, legislature or law, but by the nineteenth century, the practice had extended to theatrical and reformist venues. [1] [4] Initially, the aim was to improve the standard of oral communication, as high rates of illiteracy made it imperative for churches, courts and parliaments, to rely on the spoken word. [4] Through modification of inflection and phrasing, along with appropriate gestures, speakers were taught to convey the meaning and persuade the audience, rather than deliver monotonous litanies. [1]
In 1841, Italian scientist Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi introduced the tonograph, a device invented by him and capable of measuring the inflections and tones of human voice. It was meant to be employed inside declamation schools and it provided a way to record some characteristics of human voice, in order to provide the posterity with enough information on how declamation was carried out at that time. In the eighteenth century, the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres of Paris had unsuccessfully tried to distinguish between smaller fractions of the diatonic and harmonic scales. His perpetual secretary Charles Pinot Duclos wrote that Jean-Baptiste Dubos had proposed to hire a team of experts in the field of music, in order to carry out that task, but they didn't succeed (since no device was used and humans cannot distinguish between smaller fractions of scales without a proper device). [5]
By the mid-nineteenth century, reformers were using the "art of declamation" to publicly address vice and provide moral guidance. In the Americas, missionary-run schools focused on teaching former slaves the art of public speaking to enable them to elevate others of their race as teachers and ministers. [6] Using drama as a tool to teach, reformers hoped to standardize the spoken word, while creating a sense of national pride. [6] [7] Studies and presentation of declamation flourished in Latin America and particularly in the African-American and Afro-Caribbean communities through the first third of the twentieth century. Practitioners attempted to interpret their orations to convey the emotions and feeling behind the writer's words to the audience, rather than simply recite them. [8] In the twentieth century, among black practitioners, topical focus often was on the irony of their lives in a post-slavery world, recognizing that they had gained freedom but were limited by racial discrimination. Presentation involved use of African rhythms from dance and music, [9] and local dialect, as a form of social protest. [10]
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Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse (trivium) along with grammar and logic/dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or writers use to inform, persuade, and motivate their audiences. Rhetoric also provides heuristics for understanding, discovering, and developing arguments for particular situations.
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman educator and rhetorician born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilian, although the alternate spellings of Quintillian and Quinctilian are occasionally seen, the latter in older texts.
Choricius of Gaza was a Gaza-based Greek sophist and rhetorician of Late Antiquity. With writings dating to the early sixth century, he flourished in the time of Anastasius I as a scholar and public orator. He is considered as part of the Rhetorical School of Gaza, of which he later became the chair.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder, also known as Seneca the Rhetorician, was a Roman writer, born of a wealthy equestrian family of Corduba, Hispania. He wrote a collection of reminiscences about the Roman schools of rhetoric, six books of which are extant in a more or less complete state and five others in epitome only. His principal work, a history of Roman affairs from the beginning of the Civil Wars until the last years of his life, is almost entirely lost to posterity. Seneca lived through the reigns of three significant emperors; Augustus, Tiberius and Caligula. He was the father of Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, best known as a Proconsul of Achaia; his second son was the dramatist and Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger (Lucius), who was tutor of Nero, and his third son, Marcus Annaeus Mela, became the father of the poet Lucan.
Gaius Valerius Flaccus was a 1st-century Roman poet who flourished during the "Silver Age" under the Flavian dynasty, and wrote a Latin Argonautica that owes a great deal to Apollonius of Rhodes' more famous epic.
The Second Sophistic is a literary-historical term referring to the Greek writers who flourished from the reign of Nero until c. 230 AD and who were catalogued and celebrated by Philostratus in his Lives of the Sophists. However, some recent research has indicated that this Second Sophistic, which was previously thought to have very suddenly and abruptly appeared in the late 1st century, actually had its roots in the early 1st century. It was followed in the 5th century by the philosophy of Byzantine rhetoric, sometimes referred to as the Third Sophistic.
Philodemus of Gadara was an Epicurean philosopher and poet. He studied under Zeno of Sidon in Athens, before moving to Rome, and then to Herculaneum. He was once known chiefly for his poetry preserved in the Greek Anthology, but since the 18th century, many writings of his have been discovered among the charred papyrus rolls at the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. The task of excavating and deciphering these rolls is difficult, and work continues to this day. The works of Philodemus so far discovered include writings on ethics, theology, rhetoric, music, poetry, and the history of various philosophical schools. Ethel Ross Barker suggested in 1908 that he was owner of the Villa of the Papyri Library.
Education in ancient Rome progressed from an informal, familial system of education in the early Republic to a tuition-based system during the late Republic and the Empire. The Roman education system was based on the Greek system – and many of the private tutors in the Roman system were enslaved Greeks or freedmen. The educational methodology and curriculum used in Rome was copied in its provinces and provided a basis for education systems throughout later Western civilization. Organized education remained relatively rare, and there are few primary sources or accounts of the Roman educational process until the 2nd century AD. Due to the extensive power wielded by the pater familias over Roman families, the level and quality of education provided to Roman children varied drastically from family to family; nevertheless, Roman popular morality came eventually to expect fathers to have their children educated to some extent, and a complete advanced education was expected of any Roman who wished to enter politics.
Marcus Porcius Latro was a celebrated Roman rhetorician who is considered one of the founders of scholastic rhetoric.
The gens Arellia was a plebeian family at Rome. Although of equestrian rank, this gens does not appear to have been particularly large or important, and is known primarily from three individuals.
Jesuit drama was a form of theatre practised in the colleges of the Society of Jesus between the 16th and 18th centuries, as a way of instructing students in rhetoric, assimilating Christian values and imparting Catholic doctrine.
Papirius Fabianus was an Ancient Roman rhetorician and philosopher from the gens Papirius in the time of Tiberius and Caligula, in the first half of the 1st century AD.
Suasoria is an exercise in rhetoric: a form of declamation in which the student makes a speech which is the soliloquy of an historical figure debating how to proceed at a critical junction in his life. As an academic exercise, the speech is delivered as if in court against an adversary and was based on the Roman rhetorical doctrine and practice. The ancient Roman orator Quintilian said that suasoria may call upon a student to address an individual or groups such as the Senate, the citizens of Rome, Greeks or barbarians. The role-playing exercise developed the student's imagination as well as their logical and rhetorical skills.
A controversia is an exercise in rhetoric; a form of declamation in which the student speaks for one side in a notional legal case such as treason or poisoning. The facts of the matter and relevant law are presented in a persuasive manner, in the style of a legal counsel.
The gens Gargonia was a minor Roman family during first and second centuries BC. Some of the gens were of equestrian rank, but none appear to have held any curule magistracies.
The gens Nonia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Its members first appear in history toward the end of the Republic. The first of the Nonii to obtain the consulship was Lucius Nonius Asprenas in 36 BC. From then until the end of the fourth century, they regularly held the highest offices of the Roman state.
The gens Stertinia was a plebeian family of ancient Rome. It first rose to prominence at the time of the Second Punic War, and although none of its members attained the consulship in the time of the Republic, a number of Stertinii were so honoured in the course of the first two centuries of the Empire.
Gaius Furius Chresimus, or Cresimus, or Cressinus, was a 2nd-century BC Greek farmer and freedman in the Roman Republic mentioned in a fragment of the lost history of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, preserved in Pliny's Natural History. Piso tells that Furius Chresimus was acquitted of accusations of witchcraft during the aedileship of Spurius Postumius Albinus, dated 191 BC. The trial took place in a period of reaction against the growing influence of Hellenism at Rome, notably led by Albinus. Both Piso and Pliny told the story of the trial for its moralizing aspect.
Gaius Albucius Silus was an ancient Roman orator and teacher of rhetoric under emperor Augustus. He was born and died in Novaria, but made his career in Rome. Suetonius gives a sketch of his life, while Seneca the Elder describes him as an outstanding declaimer.
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