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Cicero on Pompey’s Command: Heuristic Rhetoric and Teaching the Art of Strategic Reasoning

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Abstract

Through the example of a paradigmatic deliberative speech from classical oratory, the paper addresses two fundamental questions of teaching rhetorical reasoning. First, the paper shows that a speech from ancient Greek and Roman political or judicial oratory could provide effective means to teach a variety of argumentation skills, the recognition of fallacies and an awareness of biases in the target audience. Second, the paper uses the speech to consider an elusive problem of rhetorical or critical reasoning instruction, namely how students may use historical models to adapt their knowledge of a case to real-life situations, where a large number of uncertain variables demands a constant awareness of the conditions affecting the audience`s decision and may require a swift change in the argumentative strategy. The paper will argue that the application of a new model of strategic reasoning called heuristic rhetoric to Cicero`s speech could illustrate a workable solution to both problems.

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Notes

  1. The main commentaries and editions of the speech are MacDonald (1998), Gildenhard et al. (2014), Halm et al. (1910), King (1917), Maróti (1991), Richter et al. (1919), Reis (1927), Donnelly (1939), Jonkers (1959). The speech was set as the AS Latin prose set text for 2014–2016 by the OCR examination board in the United Kingdom, which gave the author the opportunity to trial elements of the method in the classroom.

  2. Berry (2010), Carawan (2005), Dominik (2007), Habinek (2004), Murphy et al. (2013), Pernot (2005), Steel (2008) and Worthington (2007) offer the most up-to-date summaries of Classical oratory.

  3. Most definitions of critical thinking (e.g. Angelo 1995; Beyer 1995; Cederblom and Paulsen 2006; Ennis 1996; Fisher and Scriven 1997; Moore and Parker 2014; Paul and Elder 2008; Wade 1995) agree that the subject involves abstract higher-order thought processes, such as observation, reflection, analysis, synthesis, problem recognition and solving, evaluation, inference, understanding the strength and weaknesses of an argument and discovering fallacious forms of reasoning.

  4. Gilovich et al. (2002), Gigerenzer et al. (1999), Gigerenzer and Selten (2002).

  5. There has been considerable debate about the interpretation of what may constitute the rhetorical situation. Cf. Bitzer (1968), Vatz (1973), Consigny (1974). What matters for the heuristic view of the rhetorical situation is the set of conditions which affect the orator’s efforts to persuade the audience, to the extent that she can recognise, anticipate, control or react to these conditions.

  6. A detailed discussion of argumentation schemes is found in Walton et al. (2008). For the latest studies on the topoi and staseis (see Hoppmann 2014; Heath 1995; Kock 2012; Leff 1983; Rubinelli 2009).

  7. Such a view would inevitably agree with the radical concept of kairos among some of the sophists, especially Gorgias, although I understand the notion of ‘contingency’ in a much wider sense, similarly to Alcidamas. (Sipiora and Baumlin 2002: 1–22; Vallozza 1985).

  8. Two illuminating passages to understand the classical meaning of the phrase are Euripides Hec. 250 and Hipp. 716.

  9. See also Vasaly (1993): 156–172.

  10. A modern example of such a heureme, where the argument relies heavily on the manipulation of the timescale, is the speech delivered to the UN Security Council by former US Secretary of State Colin Powell on 5 February 2003. The speech played a pivotal role in justifying the casus belli for the United States and its allies against Iraq. The alleged proof intended to show that Iraq undertook, in breach of UN resolution 1441, continuous efforts at hiding nuclear, biological, and chemical capabilities, and also fostered relations with terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida. The rhetorical situation was beset by several contingent factors. Since Colin Powell did not identify his sources, his argument ultimately relied on multiple probabilities, particularly regarding the trustworthiness of the evidence provided by the US intelligence agencies, whilst ignoring the results of previous investigations by agencies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency. Powell’s speech sought to reconcile two competing temporal frameworks: one pressing for intervention, the other asking for continued inspection and diplomatic negotiations. The persuasive strategy, which involved side-lining independent verifiable sources, while highlighting that US intelligence had revealed a genuine ‘accumulation of facts and disturbing patterns of behaviour’ (UN ODS 2015, S/PV.4071 2003) manipulated the narrative time frame to justify a need for immediate intervention.

  11. Formally, Quintilian would call it an argumentum e simili or analogia (1.6.1 or 5.10.73).

  12. The original version of the concept is expounded by Tversky and Kahneman (1974). For its criticism see Schwarz et al. (1991).

  13. Scullard (1982): 23–18, Maróti (1991): 1–14.

  14. Contemporary Greek and Roman historians looked at this period as a time of crisis in the Roman Republic. Cf. Appian, Bellum Civile 1.111, Tacitus, Annales 3.73.2.

  15. The most recent detailed biography of Mithridates is Mayor (2009).

  16. Cicero gives a forceful description of Mithridates’ arrival in the Pro Flacco 60, Mithridatem Asiatici deum, illum patrem, illum conservatorem Asiae, illum Euhium, Nysium, Bacchum, Liberum nominabant, ‘The people of Asia called Mithridates a god, a father, the defender of Asia, Euhius, Nysius, Bacchus, Liber’.

  17. A very detailed plan is provided by Little (1912).

  18. A careful reading of the narratio would not fail to point out that Cicero mentions early on that he speaks on behalf of tax-collectors whose daily letters urge him to remind the Roman public of the dangers which await them if they fail to check the advance of Mithridates and Tigranes. 12 equitibus Romanis, honestissimis viris, adferuntur ex Asia cotidie litterae, quorum magnae res aguntur in vestris vectigalibus exercendis occupatae.

  19. Classical rhetorical handbooks did not devote as much space to demonstrative oratory as to deliberative or forensic, although it fulfilled an important social function. Cf. Cicero de inv. 1.7, Rhet. ad Herennium 1.3; 3.8 and Quint. 3.14–4.16. A detailed account of the genera causarum is provided by Pepe (2013).

  20. On the relationship between the three genres of rhetoric and the burden of proof required for each see Hoppmann (2011).

  21. On the problem of extraordinary command see Gildenhard et al. (2014): 263–267.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to express his gratitude to Dom Anselm Brumwell for his help in proofreading the manuscript with a meticulous attention to detail.

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  1. Department of Classics, Downside School, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Radstock, Bath, BA3 4RJ, UK

    Gabor Tahin

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Tahin, G. Cicero on Pompey’s Command: Heuristic Rhetoric and Teaching the Art of Strategic Reasoning. Topoi 37, 143–154 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-016-9384-1

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