Cicero’s De Oratore (55 B.C.) stands as one of the greatest reflections on the art of eloquence and the union of wisdom and speech. Written as a dialogue set in the late Roman Republic, it portrays oratory not merely as a technique of persuasion, but as the highest expression of civic virtue and philosophical insight. Through the voices of Crassus and Antonius, Cicero argues that the true orator must unite moral character, broad learning, and rhetorical skill—mastering both thought and language in service of the common good. De Oratore thus presents rhetoric as the soul of civilization: where knowledge finds its voice and virtue finds its power.
Marcus Tullius Cicero — 106–43 B.C.