Friday, October 12, 2012

Cicero, Debates and the Senate

QUO usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia? Nihilne te nocturnum praesidium Palati, nihil urbis vigiliae, nihil timor populi, nihil concursus bonorum omnium, nihil hic munitissimus habendi senatus locus, nihil horum ora voltusque moverunt? Patere tua consilia non sentis, constrictam iam horum omnium scientia teneri coniurationem tuam non vides? Quid proxima, quid superiore nocte egeris, ubi fueris, quos convocaveris, quid consilii ceperis, quem nostrum ignorare arbitraris?

As every third year Latin student knows, Cicero as a great orator went after Cataline with his fingers bared. His eloquence was compelling and his  style lasting. Rhetoric in Rome has unending value amongst those who ruled.

However the debate on the fore night was anything but. Too bad our Senate has lost class, perhaps is never had a great deal, then again there was Webster.