Ingenium, genus, and catharsis

redesigning the tragicus orator in Cicero

Abstract

This paper investigates the place of the tragicus orator within the rhetorical theory of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE). Starting from the tripartite principle of styles of discourse (genera dicendi) and the duties of the orator (officia oratoris), the focus falls on the genus grande and its reverberations. As a central corpus, the study analyzes the treatises De oratore (55 BCE) and Orator (46 BCE), with particular attention to the tension between ars and ingenium. The aim is to understand how ingenium, the orator’s innate disposition, may orient certain profiles toward a style marked by tragic tonalities. The qualifier tragicus is examined not only in its technical dimension but also in its literary and performative aspects, in order to show that vehement eloquence can produce effects akin to a genuine rhetorical catharsis. To better observe this cathartic dimension, the Catilinarians, especially the first speech, are taken as an example, in which Cicero mobilizes metus and odium as collective affects that inflame the audience against Catiline. It is precisely at this point that the boldest hypothesis of this study emerges: the possibility of conceiving a rhetorical catharsis, distinct from the tragic one, yet equally overwhelming, inscribed within the persuasive act. The paper thus seeks to demonstrate that it is through ingenium that certain orators embody a tragic tonality, generating effects that surpass ordinary persuasion and approach catharsis; at the same time, it delineates the figure of an orator who is both perfectus and excessive, a tragicus orator.