The Roman Empire produced many excellent historians. The most entertaining of them, in my opinion, was Suetonius. His Lives of the Caesars is one of the best ancient texts for Rome’s Emperors and a source that I relied on heavily while writing my book, Vitruvius: Life of a Roman Architect.
Suetonius was born into Rome’s upper class around 70 AD. His father was an officer under Vespasian who would later become of notable Emperor. Although he trained as a lawyer and briefly engaged in the profession, Suetonius apparently disliked the law and soon withdrew from it in order to pursue a literary career.
Among his surviving work is a short but amusing essay “On Rhetoricians.”
Like most educated Romans of his day, Suetonius must have had an interest in the subject.
He begins his essay by noting that rhetoric got off to a slow start in Rome due to early decrees which banned its teaching in the city. Early Romans, from the 2nd century BC and earlier, looked upon rhetoricians and philosophers with suspicion and derision. To the average Roman, such men promoted idleness among the youth. As an example of this prejudice, Suetonius cites an edict issued around 100 BC which, in part, states
It has been reported to us that there be men who have introduced a new kind of training, and that our young men frequent their schools; that these men have assumed the title of Latin rhetoricians, and that young men spend whole days with them in idleness. Our forefathers determined what they wished their children to learn and what schools they desired them to attend. These innovations in the customs and principles of our forefathers do not please us nor seem proper. Therefore it appears necessary to make our opinion known, both to those who have such schools and to those who are in the habit of attending them, that they are displeasing to us.
Over the next two centuries, however, Roman attitudes toward rhetoric changed drastically. Great men such as Cicero and Augustus inspired an enthusiasm for rhetoric which quickly spread among Rome’s elite.
During this time, according to Suetonius, “a great number of masters and teachers flocked to Rome.”
Initially, there was no standard method for teaching the subject and teaching styles varied greatly among rhetoricians. Eventually rhetorical training was done using just one method: debate.
Young Romans would debate real and hypothetical issues of all kinds, just as high school and college debate teams do today.
Suetonius gives a couple examples of the topics used. The following is my favorite:
Some young men from the city went to Ostia in the summer season, and arriving at the shore, found some fishermen drawing in their nets. They made a bargain to give a certain sum for the haul. The money was paid and they waited for some time until the nets were drawn ashore. When they were at last hauled out, no fish was found in them, but a closed basket of gold. Then the purchasers said that the catch belonged to them, the fishermen that it was theirs.
When he finished his discussion of rhetoric’s history in Roman, Suetonius proceeds to describe some of its more notable rhetoricians.
There was Plotius who trained all of the greatest orators of his day, with the exception of Cicero. Cicero himself lamented this later in life when he wrote to a friend “I well remember that when we were boys, a certain Plotius first began to teach in Latin. When crowds flocked to him, for all the most diligent students of the subject were trained under him, I regretted not having the same privilege.
Suetonius also mentions Voltacilius, a slave whose patron freed him upon learning of his rhetorical skills. Voltacilius would show his thanks by assisting his patron in legal proceedings and eventually writing a noteworthy history.
Epidius a “notorious blackmailer” is also mentioned by Suetonius. Despite this man’s alleged criminal behavior, his school of rhetoric was one of the most successful in the city, training both Mark Antony and the future Emperor Augustus.
For Suetonius’ full essay, click here.