The ancient art of public speaking
If you’re looking for public speaking ideas you can just visit you local library instead of spending a lot of money on trendy books or expensive courses. Guides to public speaking tips were written for our benefit over 2500 years ago and their content is still valid today. The ancient Greeks included some great orators that used techniqques that sill feel modern more than 2000 years later.
The earliest Greek mention of public speaking and oratorical skill is found in the Iliad, where mythological heroes like Odysseus, Hektor and Achilles are honoured for their ability to encourage and advice peers and followers. Outside the world of myth and fiction, Greek philosopher Empedocles who died around 444 BC is generally hailed as the man behind an extensive study on the power of language and his compilation of theories on public speaking has laid the foundation for many future works in the field.
The first written manual on public speaking is attributed to Corax of Syracuse and his pupil Tisias. According to later writers like Plato, Aristotle and Cicero, Corax lived in Sicily during the 5th century BC when the tyrant of Syracuse was deposed and democracy formed. Numerous citizens had been forced to watch as their land was seized by the despot and once he was toppled people trying to recover their properties flooded the courts. In this climate, Corax developed an art of rhetoric that would permit ordinary men to represent themselves in court.
During the 5th century, sophists, travelling retoric and philosophy teachers, gave popular lectures in how the best get your point forward using different oratory techniques. The sophists travelled from city to city and carried out public displays to attract interested students who could then enrol for a fee. The abovementioned Corax and Tisias are normally credited as two of the founders of this movement, but the best known of the early sophists is probably Protagoras (481-420 BC). Protagoras worked in the field of reasoned understanding and is the man behind the famed quote: “Man is the measure of all things: of things which are, that they are, and of things which are not, that they are not“.
Another example of an illustrious rhetorician is Roman teacher and writer Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (ca. 35 ca. 100). Quintilianus was born in La Rioja in Hispania but moved to Rome to study rhetoric. After the forced suicide of Emperor Nero, a time of civil war and turmoil besieged the Romans and in 69 no less than four emperors succeeded each other. This was also the year Quintilianus decided to open a public school on effective public speaking. Pliny the Younger was one of his students, and Tacitus is also thought to have been enrolled in this school. Only one work of Quintilianus has survived; a twelve-volume textbook on public speaking entitled “Institutio Oratoria“. The work contains his thoughts on teaching and how to develop as a speaker as well as information and practise that would help the student improve his skills.
