Ciceronianus: Or a Dialogue on the Best Style of Speaking. With an Introduction by Paul Monroe

by Desideruis Erasmus

English, Latin (translation)

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy

130 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[Angelina]

Just no.

It took 130 pages to make a single point: Being like Cicero doesn't mean only using the exact words and phrases Cicero used, it means thinking and responding to situations appropriately like Cicero did.

Even more succinctly: Don't talk like Cicero, behave like Cicero.

7 words would have sufficed; 130 pages felt like overkill.

[Conrad]

Erasmus wrote Ciceronianus in dialogue form as a critique of his peers' slavish adherence to Cicero's oratorical style in Latin, but - as dull as that sounds - this ends up being very bawdy and very funny.

[Madeline]

It gets a little repetitive when naming lots of individuals and asking the sickly Ciceronian Nosophonus whether he considers them Ciceronian enough, but it's rather amusing to see Erasmus and his contemporaries lampooned (and so, in a roundabout way, praised) for not having an elegant enough style. The core of the message about moderation and *how* exactly to imitate an admirable style is excellent, however. Erasmus's approach to style is through decorum and appropriateness to one's time and place (and, most strikingly for him, one's religion).