The Roman Empire had no written laws regarding conditions of communication. The Roman society allowed only the 'free' male citizens to participate in public affairs and to communicate using rhetorical means. The Latin language was most efficient conveying the concept of communication. Italic languages including Latin and its descendants -the Romance languages- were used since the 7th century B.C.E in Europe. Older languages in Italy like the Etruscan language were extinct in the time of the Roman culture. After the fall of the Roman Empire all Latin speakers in different parts of Europe became politically isolated from each other. Former speakers of Latin in these areas produced independent languages resulting in the modern Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian language, the branch of Romance languages in the Family of the Indo-European languages. The Latin noun communicatio means communication and it is the origin of terminology of communication of most European languages. The verb communico has a broad field of meanings such as ‘to share out’, ‘give a share in’, ‘to communicate’, ‘to take counsel’, ‘confer with a person’, ‘to join, unite’, ‘to take a share in’, and ‘to participate’. Roman art and literature were influenced by Greek culture. But some technical auxiliary tools for communication were more developed by the Romans in terms of better adjustment to the physical conditions for message exchange.
A state communication system was covering the whole Imperium Romanum (Roman Empire) with roads for the transfer of communication issues built all over the imperium and messengers. The Silk Route was a system of pathways that began in China, crossed central Asia and ended in Rome. Caesar uses in De Bello Gallico (liber VI) the term consilia communicare (‘to communicate official decisions’) to describe a way to communicate with barbarian tribes:
Ambiorigem sibi societate et foedere adiungunt. Quibus rebus cognitis Caesar, cum undique bellum parari videret, Nervios, Aduatucos ac Menapios adiunctis Cisrhenanis omnibus Germanis esse in armis, Senones ad imperatum non venire et cum Carnutibus finitimisque civitatibus consilia communicare, a Treveris Germanos crebris legationibus sollicitari, maturius sibi de bello cogitandum putavit.108
In Caesar’ s De Bello Gallico (book 7, chapter 63, section 4) we find also an example for the verb communicare in a public affair: “Petunt a Vercingetorige Aedui ut ad se veniat rationesque belli gerendi communicet.” The Imperium Romanum used for its command network a combination of human messengers and papyrus. The Roman Empire combined transmission mechanisms with an alphabetic language for political purposes. In terms of education and learned skills the term communicatio was in the Roman Empire related to the encyclos of learning. The architect Vitruvius in De Architectura (praefatio, 1,12) used the term communicatio in the statement that all disciplines (omnes disciplinas) have a conjunction of things and communication (coniunctionem rerum et communicationem) in the encyclos:
At fortasse mirum videbitur inperitis, hominis posse naturam tantum numerum doctrinarum perdiscere et memoria continere. cum autem animadverterint omnes disciplinas inter se coniunctionem rerum et communicationem habere, fieri posse faciliter credent.109
108 Caesar, Gaius Julius. De Bello Gallico. Montclair University. [2.2.2007].
<Http://grid.montclair.edu/latintexts/caesar/gallic/gallic6.html>
109 Pollio, Marcus Vitruvius. De Architectura. Liber I. University Chicago. [2.2.2007].
In Rome the concept of communication was dedicated to the community (communitas) of citizens in terms of public speech. Oratory was a special kind of public speaking for a special purpose in a special way at a special time to an audience by an oratio. The word oratio is derived from mouth ´os´. Oratory was practiced by people long before the ancient rhetoricians developed its theory and a vocabulary and terminology for it. But the ancient rhetoricians actually developed rhetorical guidelines. These Roman rhetoricians used a set of principles for communication taken from Greece in the Latin language and later codified it in Latin rhetorical writings. Rhetoric was cultivated as an important art and science in Rome coming from Greece spreading over Europe across the Imperium Romanun.
As a scholarly subject rhetoric had a long tradition in the West. Rhetoric was a central academic discipline in education from classical Greece to the European Renaissance. Rhetoric was since Roman times one of the three original liberal arts next to the other members of the trivium, dialectic, and grammar. But Rome used official censorship to make restrictions regarding this kind of communication. Greek teachers in Rome taught in this field. The terminology of rhetoric was derived from ancient Greek words. The two censors had to deal with censorship affairs and could decide about issues of public education. There is a document of the censors left in which was stated that it wasn’t allowed to practised rhetoric as a teacher. But when Rome became a democracy, its political system required the oral presentation of matters of the state. The rhetoricians and sophists were able to fill this need.
Rome twice banned Greek philosophers and rhetoricians from the city in 161 and 91 B.C.E.
The state also took action against the sophists.110 So we can understand why early Roman rhetorical instructions were written down as poems (carmina) like the Carmen de Figuris vel Schematibus; this was a way to escape from political pressure and censorship. In other words:
One explaination for the use of poems (carmina) in early Roman rhetoric like the Carmen de Figuris vel Schematibus made by an anonymous author was the social position of the ancient orators fearing restrictions, since this art came from Greece and wasn’t accepted as work by the Roman state. Proto-Indo-European is tar with the meanings to say, to shout. In Hittite tar means to say. Old Indian tara is high, loud, and shrill. In Armenian thrthrak is a good speaker. Proto-Indo European kar means to shout. Old Indian carkarti, akarit means to mention, praise, speak highly of. Latin carmen means song or poem.111 The verdicts of the censors with a prohibition of the public rhetoric are a historical fact. Using the genre poem the early rhetorical texts could be written down and given to other people declared as a piece of poetic work with the licentia poetarum (‘freedom of the poets’).112 In the days of Cicero rhetorical teaching was an established subject of the Greeks coming to Rome.
<Http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/1*.html>
110 Volkmann, Richard. Die Rhetorik der Griechen und Römer in systematischer Übersicht. Berlin: Ebeling 1872. Pp. 75-79
111 Databases. StarLing Database Server. [2.2.2007].
<Http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/main.cgi?root=config&morpho=0>
112 Suerbaum has faced the problem of the tradition of ancient history of rhetoric:
Suerbaum, Werner. "Fehlende Redner in Ciceros 'Brutus'? Nebst Hinweisen auf fehlende Entwicklung, fehlende Belege und fehlende Ernsthaftigkeit in einer Geschichte der römischen Beredsamkeit. In: Vir bonus dicendi peritus. Festschrift für Alfons Weische zum 65. Geburtstag am 17.1.1997.” Ed. by Beate Czapla e.a. Wiesbaden:
Reichert 1997. Pp. 407-419.
Suerbaum, Werner. "Vorliterarische römische Redner (bis zum Beginn des 2. Jhs. v. Chr.) in Ciceros 'Brutus' und in der historischen Überlieferung." In: Würzburger Jahrbücher für die Altertumswissenschaft. N.F. 21 (1996/97). Pp. 169-198.
Suerbaum, Werner. Die Vertreibung vor-ciceronischer Redner aus der römischen Literaturgeschichte. Festschrift A. Primmer. In: Wiener Studien. 114 (2001). Pp. 169-182.
The term communicatio appears in several Latin writings. Apuleius describes in De Dogmate Platonis Liber Secundus the communication of public works (communicatio opum publicarum) as a field of justice:
Duabus autem aequalibus de causis utilitatem hominum iustitia regit, quarum est prima numerorum observantia et divisionum aequalitas et eorum quae pacta sunt symbole, ad haec ponderum mensurarumque custodia et communicatio opum publicarum; secunda finalis est et veniens ex aequitate partitio, ut singulis in agros dominatus congruens deferatur ac servetur, (bonus) opimis optatior, minor non bonis; ad hoc bonus quisque natura et industria in honoribus et officiis praeferatur, pessimi cives luce careant dignitatis. Sed ille iustus in defetendo honore ac servando modus est ei qui est suffragator bonorum et malorum subiugator, ut semper in civitate emineant, quae sunt omnibus profutura, iaceant et subiecta sint cum suis auctoribus vitia.113
Gellius in his Attic Nights (VI, 15) cites Cato using the term communicatio for a communication with others:
"Quae deinde Cato iuxta dicit, ea" inquit "confessionem faciunt, non defensionem, neque propulsationem translationemve criminis habent, sed cum pluribus aliis communicationem, quod scilicet nihil ad purgandum est.114
Rhetoric, the spoken word, was since ancient times the sister branch of poetics and poetical literature. But rhetoric is the theoretical background of poetic production. Roman poets were influenced by rhetoric and Greek themes for their poetry.115 Latin poetic literature collecting mythic narratives is represented by Virgil’s Aeneid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The term
‘rhetorica’ is the Latinized version of rhetoric. Oratory (oratoria) is the main aspect of the rhetorical system; oratory has to be distinguished from orality. Oratory means the theory and practise of speech, while orality is just the use of oral mouth-to-mouth communication in a certain society in contrast to literacy. The theory of rhetorical situations was used by rhetorician since ancient times in order to find the proper words (verba propria) for each situation. The ethical quality of a speaker was one of the parts of rhetorical theory. In the Greco-Roman tradition this ethical appeal has been considered a part of the character of the speaker. In Roman times the process of composing a speech was the same as in Greece. Three of these stages –the invention for discovering ideas, the arrangement for organizing ideas, and the style for putting ideas into words– were followed by memory and delivery. The last ones, memory and delivery, are the mechanical techniques of remembering and presentation of a speech. The Rhetorica ad Herennium is the oldest complete Latin rhetorical text with a detailed presentation and treatment of all these five canons. In other words: The early Roman rhetorical advices in the Rhetorica ad Herrenium were defined as the five canons invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.116Once attributed to Cicero this book was written
113Apuleius. De Dogmate Platonis Liber Secundus. The Latin Library. [2.2.2007].
<Http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/apuleius/apuleius.dog2.shtml>
114 Gellius, Aulus. Liber Noctium Atticarum. University Chicago. [2.2.2007].
<Http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Gellius/6*.html>
115 Cf. Grassi, Ernesto. "The Philosophical and Rhetorical Significance of Ovid's Metamorphoses.” In:
Philosophy and Rhetoric. 15 (1982). Pp. 257-261.
116 Annymus. Rhetorica ad Herennium. Università degli Studi di Pavia. [3.1.2007].
<Http://lettere.unipv.it/scrineum/wight/herm1.htm>
by an anonymous person with training in rhetoric. This work was ignored in ancient times, but it was used as a standard rhetorical guideline since the 4th century. In the Rhetorica ad Herennium(liber IV) is written, that the interpretation of a text is the replacement of one word by the use of another word instead of it in the process of interpretatio, and not the repetition of the same word like in the following cases "Rem publicam radicitus evertisti, civitatem funditus deiecisti." and "Patrem nefarie verberasti, parenti manus scelerate attulisti." It is necessary to move the mind of the hearing audience, when the gravity of the former speech is repeated by the interpretation of the words:
Interpretatio est, quae non iterans idem redintegrat verbum, sed id commutat, quod positum est, alio verbo, quod idem valeat, hoc modo:
"Rem publicam radicitus evertisti, civitatem funditus deiecisti."Item:
"Patrem nefarie verberasti, parenti manus scelerate attulisti."Necessum est eius, qui audit, animum commoveri, cum gravitas prioris dicti renovatur interpretatione verborum”117
In Roman standard rhetoric the delivery or action (actio) is the part of rhetorical practise. The pronunciation of a speech is the part related to volume and tone of the speaker’s voice. The gestures and behaviour of the speaker's body (actio) is also a part of the delivery of the speech. In the elocutio according to the level of diction in a high, middle, or low style a distinctive vocabulary of words is necessary. The ‘simple style’ (genus humilis) used common words. The ‘medium style’ (genus medium) uses only a limited amount of rhetorical ornaments. The ‘grand style’ (genus grande) uses a speech in an ornate way.
Roman rhetoric –just like Greek rhetoric– has the three divisions of genera determined by the three classes of purposes for the speeches. The three elements in speech-making are the speaker, the subject, and the addressed groups. The ceremonial oratory, the genus laudativum to praises somebody or something. We mentionaed already above that the rhetorical art consists of the five canons of invention, disposition or arrangement, style, memory, and action or delivery learned while reading, imitating, and analysing other people's discourses and with the help of exercises in writing and speaking one's own speeches. Following Quintilian (Inst.
Orat.3, 15) there are five parts of a speech:
Namque in his singulis rhetorice tota est, quia et inventionem et dispositionem et elocutionem et memoriam et pronuntiationem quaecumque earum desiderat.118
The stasis-theory introduced by the Greeks was used by the Romans. Following Quintilian (Inst. Orat. 3, 6) Cicero used in his model of rhetoric categories for the different states of a thing (res) that can be questioned:
Hoc genus Cicero scientia et actione distinguit, ut sit scientiae "an providentia mundus regatur", actionis "an accedendum ad rem
117 Anonymus. Rhetorica ad Herennium. Scrineum. Università degli Studi di Pavia. [2.2.2007].
<Http://dobc.unipv.it/scrineum/wight/herm4.htm>
118Quintilian, Marcus F. Institutio Oratoria.The Latin Library. [2.2.2007].
<Http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/quintilian.institutio3.html>
A translation of Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria by John Watson was released by the University Chicago.
[2.2.2007].
<Http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Quintilian/Institutio_Oratoria/home>.
publicam administrandam". Prius trium generum, "an sit", "quid sit",
"quale sit": omnia enim haec ignorari possunt,“
Quintilian (Inst. Orat.3, 5) used the paradigm of questioning if an event occurred by asking for the circumstances of an assumed fact:
Non enim est status prima conflictio: "fecisti", "non feci", sed quod ex prima conflictione nascitur, id est genus quaestionis: "fecisti", "non feci", "an fecerit": "hoc fecisti", "non hoc feci", "quid fecerit".119
In the Greco-Roman schools rhetorical sample speeches (progymnasmata) were taught by the grammaticus. Progymnasmata are exercises to prepare students of rhetoric for the creation and performance of complete orations called gymnasmata or declamationes. Progymnasmata were specifically designed to prepare students for the refutation section of a complete oration.
(Cicero, De Inventione. 1, 42-51. Quintilian, Inst. Orat.5, 13). The act of communicating as private exchange of writings as ‘communicare’ we find in Roman letters. Cicero used in the Epistulae ad Familiares (book 4, letter 2, section 4) the verb communicare for private communication writing in the sentence “sin autem est quod mecum communicare velis, ego te exspectabo; tu, quod tuo commodo fiat, quam primum velim venias, sicut intellexi et Servio et Postumiae placere.” A similar use we find in a letter of Pliny the Younger (letters, book 4, letter 24, section 7) writing “Mihi autem familiare est omnes cogitationes meas tecum communicare, isdemque te vel praeceptis vel exemplis monere, quibus ipse me moneo; quae ratio huius epistulae fuit.”
Also the Roman colonies in the Mediterranean area were influential in terms of cultural assets for communication. By the time the Romans conquered Egypt Alexandria had already attracted immigrants from the Mediterranean area and was an international multicultural city with an Egyptian community, a Greek community, and a Jewish community. In Alexandria traditional Greek rhetoric was practised by orators and sophists were another group of teachers. Another group, the critics in Alexandria, were important for the documentation of poetical writings. Schools of the Alexandrian sophists settled down with their main representatives Lucian, Achilles Tatius, Heliodorus, and Longus. Cassius Longinus was born in Athens about 213 C.E. Cassius Longinus studied with Neoplatonist Ammonius Saccus in Alexandria in Egypt, and was a teacher of philosophy, philology, and rhetoric in Athens.
Porphyry was his student. A pagan kind of magical or religious speech is the oracle. The word oracle derived from Latin oraculum having the same root, os (mouth), as orator and oratoria (oratory). Oracles have a tradition in Greece and Near Eastern culture. Places of oracles were in Didyma and Claros (today Turkey), Dodona and Delphi in Greece, and Siwa in Egypt.
Cicero notices in Orator (VI, 20) that three genres of speech all in all exist (Tria sunt omnino genera dicendi).120 In De Inventione (I, 9) Cicero gives the following definitions of the parts of rhetoric text production:
119 Cf. Garrett, Mary; Xiao, Xiaosui. The Rhetorical Situation Revisited. In: Rhetoric Society Quarterly. 23 (1993). Pp 30-40.
Cf. Hariman, Robert. Status, Marginality, and Rhetorical Theory. In: Quarterly Journal of Speech. 72 (1986). Pp.
38-54.
120 Cicero, Marcus T. The Orator. The Latin Library. [2.2.2007].
<Http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cic.orator.html>.
Quare materia quidem nobis rhetoricae videtur artis ea, quam Aristoteli visam esse diximus, partes autem eae, quas plerique dixerunt, inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, pronuntiatio.
Inventio est excogitatio rerum verarum aut veri similium, quae causa.m probabilem reddant,
dispositio est rerum inventarum in ordinem distributio,
elocutio est idoneorum verborum [et sententiarum] ad inventionem accommodatio,
memoria est firma animi rerum ac verborum ad inventionem perceptio,
pronuntiatio est ex rerum et verborum dignitate vocis et corporis moderatio.121
Working as an orator and politician, Cicero was both a practitioner of rhetoric in his political life and work as a legal advocate and also a theorist for communication. Cicero wrote a book about inventio (De Inventione) dividing the genres of rhetoric. Inventio as the part for finding of arguments is divided into a non-artificial way of finding like citing of laws, documents and real testimonies and an artificial way by rational, emotional, and ethical appeals. Cicero wrote several books regarding the theory and practice of rhetoric. Cicero writes about the Asian rhetorical style to Brutus: “Hi tum in Asia rhetorum principes numerabantur.”122 Cicero mentions in Brutus (95, 325) as two styles of Asiatic oratory the epigrammatic and pointed style and another without sententious ideas and with an ornamented and elegant diction.
Cicero says in one of his speeches (Brutus 95, 325):
The styles of Asiatic oratory are two,--one epigrammatic and pointed, full of fine ideas which are not so weighty and serious as neat and graceful, the other with not so many sententious ideas, but voluble and hurried in its flow of language, and marked by an ornamented and elegant diction.123
Quintilian was concerned with the creation of new knowledge and asserted that rhetorical situations depend on the audience. As for Quintilian, this teacher composed an encyclopaedic work about techniques, style, and the past of rhetoric. Latin rhetoric was influenced by Greek rhetoric, since it was based upon Greek terminology that was translated into Latin. Even the rhetor and teacher Quintilian used and explained Greek terms in late Roman time in his Institutio Oratoria. Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria is a treatment of the principles of rhetoric and the nature of eloquence. School exercises called declamations of the early empire are found in the existing suasoriae and controversiae of Seneca.124 As an orator and a teacher
121Cicero, Marcus T. De Inventione. Scrineum. Università degli Studi di Pavia. [2.2.2007].
<Http://lettere.unipv.it/scrineum/wight/invs1.htm>
A translation done by Steven M. Wight is available at the same place.
<Http://dobc.unipv.it/scrineum/wight/invs1.htm>
122 Cicero, Marcus T. Brutus. University of Texas. [2.2.2007].
<Http://www.utexas.edu/depts/classics/documents/brut.html>.
<Http://www.utexas.edu/depts/classics/documents/brut.html>.