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{{Short description|Exercise in rhetoric}}File:Statue of Roman poet Ovid in Constanta, cropped.jpg|thumb|right|The Latin poet OvidOvidSuasoria is an exercise in rhetoric: a form of declamation in which the student makes a speech which is the soliloquy of an historical figure debating how to proceed at a critical junction in his life.{{citation |pages=301–302 |title=Roman Declamation: The Elder Seneca and Quintilian |work=A Companion to Roman Rhetoric |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2010 |isbn=9781444334159 |last=Bloomer |first=W. Martin}} As an academic exercise, the speech is delivered as if in court against an adversary and was based on the Roman rhetorical doctrine and practice.BOOK, Tertullian's Treatise on the Incarnation: The Text Edited with an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, Evans, Ernest, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2016, 9781498297677, Eugene, OR, x, The ancient Roman orator Quintilian said that suasoria may call upon a student to address an individual or groups such as the Senate, the citizens of Rome, Greeks or barbarians.BOOK,weblink Many Sides: A Protagorean Approach to the Theory, Practice and Pedagogy of Argument, Mendelson, M., 2013-06-29, Springer Science & Business Media, 9789401598903, en, 258, The role-playing exercise developed the student's imagination as well as their logical and rhetorical skills.

Origin

The formal introduction of suasoria as a school form is unknown.BOOK, A Companion to Roman Rhetoric, Dominik, William, Hall, Jon, Wiley Blackwell, 2010, 9781405120913, Malden, MA, 302, One of the earliest forms of this exercise, however, involved Cicero's practice of philosophical theses, which were addressed to the self. The exercise became prevalent in ancient Rome, where it was, with the controversia, the final stage of a course in rhetoric at an academy. One famous instance was recalled by Juvenal in the first of his Satires:{{citation |title=Roman Eloquence: Rhetoric in Society and Literature |chapter=Declamation and contestation in satire |author=Susanna Morton Braund |page=147 |publisher=Routledge |year=1997 |isbn=9780415125444}}{{blockquote|''Et nos ergo manum ferulæ subduximus: et nos''Consilium dedimus Syllæ privatus ut altum''Dormiret. Stulta est clementia cum tot ubique''Vatibus occurras perituræ parcere chartæ.I too have felt the master's cane upon my hand. I toohave given Sulla advice to retire into a deepsleep. No point in sparing paper which is doomed todestruction as you meet all those 'bards' everywhere.}}Here Juvenal recalls his speech advising the dictator Sulla to retire. Another Roman poet who recalled enjoying his suasoria was Ovid.{{citation |page=212 |volume=9 |title=Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics |year=1912 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |chapter=Education (Roman)|title-link=Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics }}

Surviving examples

{{Rhetoric}}A book of suasoriae survive from antiquity, recorded in Suasoria by Seneca the Elder.BOOK, Empire and Memory, Gowing, Alain M., 2005-08-11, Cambridge University Press, 978-0-521-83622-7, 44–45, 10.1017/cbo9780511610592, He writes responses and analysis of responses on seven suasoriae:

1. Alexander debates whether to sail the ocean,BOOK, Suasoriae, Seneca the Elder, Harvard University Press, 1974, 464, 485, 10.4159/DLCL.seneca_elder-suasoriae.1974,
2. The three hundred Spartans sent against Xerxes deliberate whether they too should retreat following the flight of the contingents of three hundred sent from all over Greece,BOOK, Suasoriae, Seneca the Elder, Harvard University Press, 1974, 464, 507, 10.4159/DLCL.seneca_elder-suasoriae.1974,
3. Agamemnon deliberates whether to sacrifice Iphigenia for Calcas says otherwise sailing is impermissible,BOOK, Suasoriae, Seneca the Elder, Harvard University Press, 1974, 464, 535, 10.4159/DLCL.seneca_elder-suasoriae.1974,
4. Alexander the Great warned of danger by an augur deliberates whether to enter Babylon,BOOK, Suasoriae, Seneca the Elder, Harvard University Press, 1974, 464, 545, 10.4159/DLCL.seneca_elder-suasoriae.1974,
5. Xerxes has threatened to return unless the trophies of the Persian War are removed: the Athenians deliberate whether to do so,BOOK, Suasoriae, Seneca the Elder, Harvard University Press, 1974, 464, 551, 10.4159/DLCL.seneca_elder-suasoriae.1974,
6. Cicero deliberates whether to beg Antony's pardon,BOOK, Suasoriae, Seneca the Elder, Harvard University Press, 1974, 464, 561, 10.4159/DLCL.seneca_elder-suasoriae.1974, and
7. Antony promises to spare Cicero's life if he burns his writings: Cicero deliberates whether to do so.BOOK, Suasoriae, Seneca the Elder, Harvard University Press, 1974, 464, 595, 10.4159/DLCL.seneca_elder-suasoriae.1974,

References

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External links

• Seneca, Suasoriae (translated by W.A. Edward) at attalus.org