Cicero

Out of the assigned readings, I found the section about Cicero to be the most interesting due to his life history. Cicero was not born in the upper class, but he was such a profound speaker as a young man that he was able to break the class barrier, and was looked highly upon by many. He lived at the time when the government in Rome was going through a serious change as it was turning from a republic to an empire. Because of this change, the ability of rhetoricians to speak in public places also changed dramatically. At the beginning of his life, Cicero was one who spoke frequently in the streets and was followed by many due to his eloquence and profound ability to convey rhetoric. However, later in his life it was difficult for Cicero among other orators to speak in public because they were disallowed by the empire.  Cicero began to lose his following in his later years as the government continued to dramatically change, and shortly after his death the government was no longer a republic. Due to his stance in his works, I think that if we could relate Cicero to a modern politician he would be very much a liberal simply because of how he viewed rhetoric. Cicero did not study rhetoric to seek absolute truth of any kind, but rather to simply discuss matters.