Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶138–139 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
From “On the Contempt of Death”
Translation by C. D. Yonge (1853)
Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶138–139
M. Do you, then, expect that I am to give you a regular peroration, like the rhetoricians, or shall I forego that art? A. I would not have you give over an art which you have set off to such advantage; and you were in the right to do so, for, to speak the truth, it also has set you off. But what is that peroration? For I should be glad to hear it, whatever it is.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶138–139, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/tusculan-disputations/1.138
Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesThe speaker asks whether he should end with a formal rhetorical conclusion, and his friend urges him to, praising how well rhetoric has served him. It is simply a transition into the closing argument.
Older wording
- “peroration”
- — the closing section of a speech
Themes and situations
- Speech and silence
- Learning and progress
Quote cards
The opening line of this passage as an image, with its citation — for sharing or keeping.