One understands all too well what a declamation is, and yet a reasoned account of the genre is perhaps still wanted. A declamation was a rhetorical piece on an invented theme. If one imagined a judicial proceeding, the resulting speech would be known as a controuersia. An exhortation to a fictive interlocutor was called a suasoria. The following proposition might form the foundation for a controuersia and produce accusations and defences: “A married woman gave birth to a black baby. She is charged with adultery.” A suasoria might encourage or discourage a historical or mythological figure. One was given a theme such as “Should Cicero beg Antonius to spare his life?” Theoretically the same speaker might engage one side and then promptly reverse himself and plead the opposite cause. Though I will argue that we need to take declamation more seriously, clearly one cannot argue that everything said was said “in earnest.” Such word play could be used to train schoolboys who dreamed of one day becoming politicians and public speakers, or these exercises might be pursued by mature men who sought to entertain a circle of friends or even a broader public with a display of verbal dexterity.

Though I am interested in its Roman incarnation, this genre neither begins nor ends at Rome.