"Impersonation, known by the general terms fictio personae in Latin and prosopopoeia in Greek, was a way to vary and animate a speech by summoning a figure to speak the orator's sentiments in his (or her or its) own voice (cf. Quint. Inst. 9.2.29-35). The device brought the orator's style of performance ever closer to the actor's and encouraged a certain grandeur of manner and style. Among the most famous prosopopoeiae in Roman oratory is a passage from Cicero's speech in defense of Marcus Caelius where the advocate, having already cast Caelius' jilted lover Clodia as the evil genius behind the prosecution, summons her distinguished ancestor Appius Claudius Caecus to shame and scold her for her conduct."
Subsection of Roman Times:
A weblog of links to and abstracts from academic presentations on the Roman Empire
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Performing Cicero
"Impersonation, known by the general terms fictio personae in Latin and prosopopoeia in Greek, was a way to vary and animate a speech by summoning a figure to speak the orator's sentiments in his (or her or its) own voice (cf. Quint. Inst. 9.2.29-35). The device brought the orator's style of performance ever closer to the actor's and encouraged a certain grandeur of manner and style. Among the most famous prosopopoeiae in Roman oratory is a passage from Cicero's speech in defense of Marcus Caelius where the advocate, having already cast Caelius' jilted lover Clodia as the evil genius behind the prosecution, summons her distinguished ancestor Appius Claudius Caecus to shame and scold her for her conduct."
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