I’ve horribly neglected this blog. It’s been a tough year with plenty of ups and
downs and dramatic demands on what little time I have. I’m doing my best to get back at it, and I
think a good way to start is with this post.
I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that you haven’t read anything by
the author I’m about to mention.
Nonetheless, he may be the most important author of the last twenty-one
hundred years, or maybe ever. (I’m
speaking from a secular perspective.
Clearly, those who penned the main holy books have had a greater impact
on civilization for both the bad and the good, but in many cases, just barely.)
Target: College
Type: Ancient Literature
Listen Up: All of My Reviews Are Loaded with Spoilers.
Type: Ancient Literature
Listen Up: All of My Reviews Are Loaded with Spoilers.
I’m talking about Marcus Tullius Cicero. See; I told you that you haven’t read his
works. It’s amazing, too. If you had to read only one work of Cicero’s,
I recommend the Cataline Orations.
(They go by many names, depending on which stuffy scholar is referencing
them. A Google search on “Cicero
Cataline” will get you to the speeches.)
The One Sentence Plot
Cicero speaks against another Roman senator who plots
violence for political gain.
Why Cicero Is Required Reading
I said a moment ago that you probably haven’t ever read him,
and I said it was amazing. I said that because
more than one societal, literary, and historical expert believes Cicero was
responsible for the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Since he’d been dead for more than thirteen-hundred
and sixteen hundred years, respectively; you can imagine what that says about
his written works. The Catholic Church
declared him a “righteous pagan.” That
meant his works, although secular in some cases and pagan in others, were preserved
along with the Scriptures. Despite this,
I didn’t even hear about him (except as a character in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar) until my third year in college
when I took a classical rhetoric class.
Unfortunately, what I believe should be required reading in junior high
or high school is really only required reading in advanced college courses.
But Is It Any Good?
Good doesn’t cover it.
His ability to string words together was so incredible that popular
tradition holds that Mark Antony’s wife repeatedly jabbed needles through his
tongue while his severed head was on display after his death. Listen the very opening of one of his
powerful speeches against the senator plotting against Rome.
When, O Catiline, do
you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still
to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours,
swaggering about as it does now? Do not the nightly guards placed on the
Palatine Hill—do not the watches posted throughout the city—does not the alarm
of the people, and the union of all good men—does not the precaution taken of
assembling the senate in this most defensible place—do not the looks and
countenances of this venerable body here present, have any effect upon you? Do
you not feel that your plans are detected? Do you not see that your conspiracy
is already arrested and rendered powerless by the knowledge which every one
here possesses of it? What is there that you did last night, what the night
before— where is it that you were—who was there that you summoned to meet
you—what design was there which was adopted by you, with which you think that any
one of us is unacquainted?
Shame on the age and
on its principles! The senate is aware of these things; the consul sees them;
and yet this man lives. Lives! aye, he comes even into the senate. He takes a
part in the public deliberations; he is watching and marking down and checking
off for slaughter every individual among us. And we, gallant men that we are,
think that we are doing our duty to the republic if we keep out of the way of
his frenzied attacks.
You ought, O Catiline,
long ago to have been led to execution by command of the consul. That
destruction which you have been long plotting against us ought to have already
fallen on your own head.
What? Did not that
most illustrious man, Publius Scipio, the Pontifex Maximus, in his
capacity of a private citizen, put to death Tiberius Gracchus, though but
slightly undermining the constitution? And shall we, who are the consuls,
tolerate Catiline, openly desirous to destroy the whole world with fire and
slaughter? For I pass over older instances, such as how Caius Servilius Ahala
with his own hand slew Spurius Maelius when plotting a revolution in the state.
There was—there was once such virtue in this republic, that brave men would
repress mischievous citizens with severer chastisement than the most bitter enemy.
For we have a resolution 2 of
the senate, a formidable and authoritative decree against you, O Catiline; the
wisdom of the republic is not at fault, nor the dignity of this senatorial
body. We, we alone,—I say it openly, —we, the consuls, are waiting in our duty.
Cicero was quite possibly the greatest orator of all
time. He also proposed that the power of
speech was so profound that no person should undertake to learn it without
first being a “good” person. (Take a
look at charismatic people in our history, at the evil they were able to
accomplish by swaying a populace if you doubt that.)
Granted, with my background in rhetoric, I’m biased. Still, five stars isn’t enough for Cicero.
or your library or just about anywhere. Choose a play and you're likely to be amazed at how many movies are just cheap imitations of Shakespeare's work.
is often described as the greatest American novel of all time. His short stories, however, have a remarkable satirical flavor that reveals the brilliance of this author. Read "The Man Who Corrupted Haddlyburg" and you'll be laughing for days.