The Myth of the Birth of Rhetoric and the Vocabulary of Progress in Cicero's De inventione

Authors

  • Simone Mollea Università di Torino

Abstract

This paper discusses the myth of the birth of rhetoric in De inventione 1, 2. As this turns out to be the first example of the myth of progress in Latin literature, the main aim is to verify to what extent the version of the De inventione influenced the vocabulary of this kind of myths in several Latin authors after Cicero. I also provide an overview of the possible Greek sources Cicero drew on in writing his own version. Finally, as the path of progress leads humankind to the idea of civilization, which can be called humanitas in Latin, I
also put forward a hypothesis regarding the time when the noun humanitas entered into the Latin language.

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Author Biography

Simone Mollea, Università di Torino

Simone Mollea è assegnista di ricerca presso l’Università degli Studi di Torino e insegna lingua e grammatica latina presso l’Università della Svizzera italiana di Lugano. I suoi principali interessi di ricerca e le sue pubblicazioni gravitano intorno al Wertbegriff humanitas, alla letteratura
latina tardoantica, al filosofo Seneca e alla funzione veicolare della lingua e della cultura latina tra Occidente e Oriente nelle opere gesuite. Ha pubblicato un commento integrale alle Epistulae ad Lucilium 67 e 68 di Seneca (Edizioni dell’Orso, Alessandria 2023) e una monografia sull’humanitas nella letteratura latina di età imperiale (Humanitas in the Imperial Age. From Pliny the Younger to
Symmachus, "Lumina" 1, De Gruyter, Berlin-Boston 2024).

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Published

2025-01-31

How to Cite

Mollea, S. (2025). The Myth of the Birth of Rhetoric and the Vocabulary of Progress in Cicero’s De inventione. Ciceroniana On Line, 8(2), 683–702. Retrieved from https://ojs.unito.it/index.php/COL/article/view/11653

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2024): “Lecturae Ciceronis I, 2024. Le De inuentione entre philosophie, droit et rhétorique” Proceedings edited by Charles GUÉRIN and Veronica REVELLO

Section

Papers

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