Polityczna rola oratorstwa w działalności Gajusza Juliusza Cezara

Abstract

In our study of rhetoric, oratory is treated as practical application of the rules of rhetoric to the theory and practice of speech making. In the ancient model of education, rhetoric was a synthesis of the knowledge and culture of those times. Oratory was then a means through which the intellectual stature of the people of classical antiquity was made manifest. Ancient authors seem all to agree that Caius Julius Caesar enjoyed the opinion of one of the greatest orators of his times. His rhetorical education was indeed excellent. He was one of the very few experts in rhetoric who wrote studies on the theory of rhetoric. Above all, however, Caesar made skilful use of his oratory in his political and military career. In this he was assisted by his talents, his erudition, his Epicurean sympathies, a rationalist attitude to religion, and his Atticist preferences. Seeing that the foundations of the republican system were crumbling, Caesar consistently strove to become an autocratic ruler. His wide use of rhetoric in the political propaganda made it easier for him to achieve this aim. Naturally, it was not Caesar’s oratory that determined his significance in history. That oratory was, however, put by him to a good use, side by side with his other talents that made him one of the most outstanding figures of classical antiquity.