Deceptive Oratory: Cicero in Sinon’s Speech (Verg. Aen. 2.57–198)
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This paper draws attention to Sinon’s speech in Book 2 of the Aeneid as a specimen of deceptive oratory, profoundly indebted to Cicero’s rhetorical and political manipulation of exilic topoi. It also points to the association of Sinon and Cicero as masters of dissimulatio in rhetorical theory in Late Antiquity. Although the comparison between Sinon and Cicero may have originated in anti-Ciceronian propaganda, Vergil’s depiction of Sinon as a “Ciceronian” orator suggests that Cicero’s manipulative exploitation of the psychagogic power of the logos impacted his reception from the Augustan period onwards and contributed to the establishment of his figure as a “sophist” in the educational system of Late Antiquity.
Source: Classical Philology
DOI: 10.1086/733199
Author: Giuseppe La Bua
Institution: Sapienza University of Rome
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4405536772