Suasoria is an exercise inrhetoric: a form ofdeclamation in which the student makes a speech which is thesoliloquy of anhistorical figure debating how to proceed at a critical junction in his life.[1] As an academic exercise, the speech is delivered as if in court against an adversary and was based on theRoman rhetorical doctrine and practice.[2] The ancient Roman oratorQuintilian said that suasoria may call upon a student to address an individual or groups such as theSenate, the citizens of Rome, Greeks or barbarians.[3] The role-playing exercise developed the student's imagination as well as their logical and rhetorical skills.[3]
The formal introduction of suasoria as a school form is unknown.[4] One of the earliest forms of this exercise, however, involvedCicero's practice of philosophical theses, which were addressed to the self.[4] The exercise became prevalent inancient Rome, where it was, with thecontroversia, the final stage of a course in rhetoric at anacademy. One famous instance was recalled byJuvenal in the first of hisSatires:[5]
Et nos ergo manum ferulæ subduximus: et nos Consilium dedimus Syllæ privatus ut altum Dormiret. Stulta est clementia cum tot ubique Vatibus occurras perituræ parcere chartæ.
I too have felt the master's cane upon my hand. I too have given Sulla advice to retire into a deep sleep. No point in sparing paper which is doomed to destruction as you meet all those 'bards' everywhere.
Here Juvenal recalls his speech advising the dictatorSulla to retire. Another Roman poet who recalled enjoying his suasoria wasOvid.[6]
A book ofsuasoriae survive from antiquity, recorded inSuasoria bySeneca the Elder.[7] He writes responses and analysis of responses on seven suasoriae:
The three hundred Spartans sent against Xerxes deliberate whether they too should retreat following the flight of the contingents of three hundred sent from all over Greece,[9]
Agamemnon deliberates whether to sacrifice Iphigenia for Calcas says otherwise sailing is impermissible,[10]
Alexander the Great warned of danger by an augur deliberates whether to enter Babylon,[11]
Xerxes has threatened to return unless the trophies of the Persian War are removed: the Athenians deliberate whether to do so,[12]
Cicero deliberates whether to beg Antony's pardon,[13] and
Antony promises to spare Cicero's life if he burns his writings: Cicero deliberates whether to do so.[14]
^Bloomer, W. Martin (2010), "Roman Declamation: The Elder Seneca and Quintilian",A Companion to Roman Rhetoric, John Wiley & Sons, pp. 301–302,ISBN9781444334159
^Evans, Ernest (2016).Tertullian's Treatise on the Incarnation: The Text Edited with an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. x.ISBN9781498297677.
^abDominik, William; Hall, Jon (2010).A Companion to Roman Rhetoric. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell. p. 302.ISBN9781405120913.
^Susanna Morton Braund (1997), "Declamation and contestation in satire",Roman Eloquence: Rhetoric in Society and Literature, Routledge, p. 147,ISBN9780415125444
