Cicero’s full name was Marcus Tullius Cicero. According to Wikipedia, “Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher and Academic Skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire.” He was born on January 3rd, in the year one hundred and six BC. Catiline’s full name was Lucius Sergius Catilina. According to Wikipedia, “Lucius Sergius Catilina, known in English as Catiline, was a Roman patrician, soldier and senator of the 1st century BC best known for the second Catilinarian conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic and, in particular, the power of the aristocratic Senate.”

How important was the rhetorical Context of Cicero’s orations: his listeners’ fear of Catiline’s conspiracy and army? Rhetorical means “relating to the art of rhetoric”. Rhetoric means “the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.” Rhetoric was actually very important in Cicero’s speeches. If he did not use rhetoric in his speeches, then he would not have impacted the world as he did with rhetoric. So the rhetoric he used in his speeches impacted the world in his day some-what. It was said that he was one of the most efficient users of rhetoric in history and he was regarded for his rhetoric abilities. Cicero was a Roman politician and served as counsel in the year sixty-three BC. In his speeches, he was consistent with a goal that he delivered in his speech and the speech was pretty much based off of that one goal. The victim was entirely outmatched against Cicero’s rhetoric and every victim knew that he or she was defeated even before the accusations began. Cicero was a powerful man just by his very unique rhetoric. Just the thought of being pursued by this man made the victim daunted.

In one of Cicero’s accusations, he confronted a man named Catiline. It was believed that Catiline was attempting to overthrow the city, which he was. He even considered Catiline as being the source of all evil in Rome and he said it in front of the Roman senate. He actually delivered four, completely different orientations, all of which hade a different goal, but they were all focusing on the one goal of getting rid of Catiline and all his followers and his conspiracy from the city forever.

In this speech, Cicero used rhetoric as he did in any other speech. In this speech, he used his rhetoric to emotionally move and persuade his audience so that they will take action against Catiline and his conspiracy. In his speech, Cicero used rhetoric to persuade Catiline to leave Rome, which he did. Not by force, but by the persuasion of Cicero’s rhetoric.

If it was not for Cicero’s rhetoric, then Catiline would have been successful in his attempt to overthrow the city. Cicero’s rhetoric was indeed unique and it was because of this that may have saved the lives of lots of people.