Author: WyattPitts

What was Horace’s concept of personal ethical cause and effect? According to Wikipedia “Quintus Horatius Flaccus known in the English-speaking world as Horace was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.” Horace was born on December 8th in the year 65 Bc, And died on November 27 in the year 8BC. Horace wrote many things including the book Odes, “The Art of Poetry.” According to Wikipedia “Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.” In his books Horace writes likes he is talking to you. He writes things that may or may not affect their lives. Horace’s concept of personal ethical cause and effect is the “golden mean.” According to Wikipedia ““The golden mean or golden middle way is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. It appeared in Greek thought at least as early as the Delphic maxim “nothing in excess” and emphasized in later Aristotelian philosophy.” 

In the Odes Horace writes a lot about death. He says things like the only major thing in life is death. We can never escape death no matter how hard we try to. It’s the one thing all men have in common. Because of this all men are equal. No one’s life means more than someone else’s. We are all equal. All the riches we have on earth will mean nothing to us once we die. You cannot do anything with those riches once you die. So Horace says to live by the golden mean, the middle way. 

Throughout Odes Horace uses examples of the ant. Proverbs 6: 6-7 says 

⁶ Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

⁷ Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

⁸ Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

Death is something that no one can escape no matter how hard you try. So Horace says if you live be the golden mean you will have satisfaction.

What was Ovid’s view of the gods’ ethical performance? According to Wikipedia According to Wikipedia, “Publius Ovidius Naso, known in English as Ovid, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature.” Ovid was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. Ovid wrote “a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people” which is called Ab Urbe Condita. Around 8 BC Augustus banished Ovid to the Black sea. About that same time Ovid started writing a book called Metamorphoses. This book is Ovid’s worldview on how creation happened. 

In most of the stories in the Metamorphoses the main theme is pride. Both the gods and men were prideful. The gods were so prideful that if anyone denied their pride that they would have to face the harsh and cruel consequences. Some of these consequences were bad sanctions. 

One of the stories that has a lot of pride in it is book six. This is called “Rustics changed to frogs”. This story begins when a goddess named Latona gives birth to twins, which are both gods. She becomes very thirsty after giving birth and so she goes to get a drink from a pond. There were some men at the pond and they did not let her pass and get a drink. This is because they thought that if they resisted a god that they would become powerful. This is mans pride. The goddess Latona was also being prideful because she thought as a god that she could do what she wanted when she wanted. She tried multiple times to get a drink and every time they resisted. Finally she was done with them so she prayed that they would become frogs. The men did become frogs after this. It’s crazy that all of this happened over a drink of water. 

Was there any basis for an optimistic view of Rome in Livy and Ovid? Titus Livius was a Roman historian. Livy wrote down many thing about the history of Rome, but some of his writings do not exist today. We cannot believe some of these stories though. Much of these writings he does not know what happened so he writes down his imagination to fill in the blanks.  

Ovid’s full name was Publius Ovidius Naso. Ovid was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. Ovid wrote “a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people” which is called Ab Urbe Condita. Around 8 BC Augustus banished Ovid to the Black sea. About that same time Ovid started writing a book called Metamorphoses. This book is Ovid’s worldview on how creation happened. 

Both Livy’s and Ovid’s stories begin on their view of creation and then how they think Rome originated. Livy’s view on the creation of Rome starts when two children named Romulus and Remus were born. The king saw them as a threat and ordered them to be put in the river. the river god ,Tiberius, saved them and put them at the bank of where Rome would eventually be. There a she-wolf heard them crying and went to them and let them nurse of her. Eventually a shepherd found and adopted them. When they became adults they argued about who would build a great city and rule over it. Soon enough Romulus killed Remus, built the city, then named it Rome. 

In Ovid’s version mankind was so wicked that the god Jupiter sent a flood to destroy them all. there were two survivors, Deuclion and Pyrra. they repopulated the earth by tossing rocks over their shoulders which turned them into people. 

These two stories have some similarities, but they’re mostly different. They both begin with the corruption of mankind and end with building up hope for Rome. The basis of optimism for these two books is hope.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic sceptic. many people believe that Cicero was one of the greatest rhetoric masters in history. According to the dictionary rhetoric is “the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.” Cicero was very persuasive, more than most people in his time. Catiline’s full name was Lucius Sergius Catilina. According to Wikipedia “Catiline was a Roman politician and soldier. He is best known for instigating the Catilinarian conspiracy, a failed attempt to violently seize control of the Roman state in 63 BC.

How important was the rhetorical Context of Cicero’s orations: his listeners’ fear of Catiline’s conspiracy and army? According to the dictionary oration is “a formal speech, especially one given on a ceremonial occasion.” Basically the Catilinarian conspiracy was an oration from Cicero to Catiline where he was being rhetoric to get Catiline out of the city. The main key in Cicero’s speeches was to be rhetoric. The rhetoric in his speeches is the thing that impacted people. Because Cicero was being so rhetoric Catiline could not answer him, nor could anyone else there. Cicero kept on talking and not giving anyone else time to answer and that is how he got the time to be rhetoric. 

The Catilinarian conspiracy was Cicero confronting Catiline. Catiline was thought to be trying to overthrow Rome. So Cicero confronted him to get out of the city with his army. Catiline did go after the first part of this speech. In the rest of the speech Cicero was telling everyone else to beware of Catiline. To trust Cicero because he claimed the gods sent him to do this. And to be ready if there is a war. When Cicero was confronting Catiline Cicero said four different orations which were all pointed at Catiline and getting him out of the city. 

Because of Cicero’s rhetoric speech he successfully got Catiline out of Rome. Cicero was well trained with rhetoric speeches so this one was easy. If not for Cicero, Catiline might have attacked and successfully destroyed Rome. 

If you had been Catiline, what would you have said to undermine Cicero’s case? Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic sceptic. many people believe that Cicero was one of the greatest rhetoric masters in history. According to the dictionary rhetoric is “the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.” Cicero was very persuasive, more than most people in his time. When Cicero was a lawyer he attacked a man named Catiline. This attack was in a court. Catiline was a part of the Roman senate at the time. Catiline had his own organizations and because of this people began to suspect that he might overthrow the city. 

Catiline was brought to law because people began to suspect him. When Cicero “attacked” Catiline, he had to use his rhetoric skills to scare him because if people are scared they might give in to what they may or may not have done. Cicero talked for a long time about things Catiline had done which some may not have been true. Cicero was accusing Catiline of being a threat to the Romans and the Republic. Some of the accusations were not specific. If I had been Catiline I would have tried to make Cicero prove that he was telling the truth or for him to give proof. 

It is strange that Catiline never tried to change Cicero’s mind or talk against him. All of the accusations could have been true and he could have not wanted more proof against himself. Or maybe he never got a chance to say any thing because he never got a chance. Maybe he was under too much pressure. He did nothing to defend himself even there were hundreds of thing that he could have said. If I was Catiline I would at least have said something. 

Soon he was banished with his army and he returned and attacked Rome which is what he would have done in the first place. If I had of been Catiline I would have done something to have stopped from being banished.