Marc Fabius Quintilian (35 - c. 100 AD) is known to everyone who has at least once been confronted with rhetoric and oratory. He was the first Roman teacher-theoretician who received a salary for his achievements, and subsequently won the glory of the great orator.
short biography
Having begun his work at a school organized by Emperor Titus Flavius Vespassian, an outstanding speaker Mark Fabius Quintilian became a respected professor and voice of high Roman society. According to historians, he was an ardent admirer of Cicero’s work, but he was able to completely change the literary style of his time.
Poets are born, they become orators!
This is the essence of his teachings. The main rule of the speaker is to embark on the path of rules and instructions. It’s not enough to be born with the gift of eloquence, you must be able to cope with it. The speaker creates the rules for choosing words, logically arranges them in sentences, discards inappropriate details and conveys the true meaning to his listeners.
"Who? What? Where? When? How? How? Why?" - This is how a model created by rhetoric looks like. And until now, his recommendations on how to correctly build sentences are used in many professions at present.
According to Quintilian, an orator is a sage who brings truth to the people. And for truth, it is not enough to possess the necessary natural data. With ethics, moderation and logic, they together give the same result.
Quintilian Rhetoric
Having studied a huge number of ancient Greek and some Roman works, Marc Fabius Quintilian divided rhetoric into 5 postulates. Types of speech he subdivides into meritorious and censure, judicial speeches and reasoning.
One of the most important aspects of speech, in his opinion, is intonation, which can direct speech to flow in the right direction. The same applies to gestures and the ability to stop in time. These qualities will help to cause laughter, horror, regret, sympathy - the whole spectrum of human emotions that can cause sympathy in the public or convince judges when the speaker pleases.
Mark Fabius Quintillian on the education of a speaker
There are no incapable children, but the personal qualities and abilities of each of them must be taken into account. This is precisely the approach Quintilian used to teach his students. He adhered to three main steps, saying that children first need to be taught to imitate and necessary rules, and then only give the opportunity to exercise.
He did not recognize individual instruction. In his opinion, it is precisely being in society that allows a person to take control of himself. In friendly relations there is no place for material persuasion, so you can only achieve your goal in word and deed.
Corporal punishment must be abandoned. The most important thing for a child is to find his “I” as soon as possible. A good relationship between student and teacher is the key to hard work. Studying grammar and reading the right books will help in mental development and moral education. Do not neglect calligraphy. Education should be started as early as possible, it does not matter that at first the children will be able to learn a little, but year after year, collecting grain after grain of knowledge, they will reach the desired heights. By nature, all children have talent, but without proper education they cannot be revealed.
Artworks
The writings of Marc Fabius Quintilian's “Instructions to the Orator” included twelve books, each of which is devoted to a separate issue within the whole theme. So, the first volume addresses the issues of raising a child (boy) by parents. The second reveals the essence of learning in a rhetorical school. The third to ninth Quintillian talks about the theory of oratory. The tenth analyzes the works that are useful for the future speaker. In the eleventh, oratory techniques are given, and the twelfth book summarizes the whole work, making up the image of the ideal orator - a person of high morality and morality with a broad outlook and flexible mind.
He created this cycle of books thanks to the persuasion of his students and comrades. Referring to the fact that before him enough work had been created on this topic, Marc Fabius for a long time did not want to get to work, but in the end he decided that no one except him could collect, systematize and describe all the necessary points that are important for training. And so a great work was created, based on the importance of the unity of an impeccable style and content.
Basic Rules
The speech should fully reveal the meaning and carry the truth, but not be prolonged beyond measure. It must contain words that revive it, but do not overload it. The speaker should have a lively and bold word, but not insulting insolence. The speaker needs to set three goals that will determine the direction of speech: persuasion, delight, passion. You can’t talk about something you don’t have the slightest idea about, because then the word will become far from reality.
No rules and regulations can exist without talent. The converse is also true. Speech is material given to man by nature, but without the ability of man to own it, it turns into an empty sound that is not worthy of attention.
Theory and practice are closely interconnected. It makes no sense to learn something, not being able to apply their knowledge. A practice without theory may exist, since the necessary material is acquired as experience accumulates, but the greatest effect is achieved only with their competent combination.
Imitation should become a tool of the speaker in improving their skills, but in no case become the goal. By studying the sayings of ancient thinkers, you can learn the correct, noble style of expression of thought. Although the oratory and the writing arts are different from each other, citing significant works can show the depth of the speaker’s knowledge, which will attract more attention and help convince listeners, but only it is worth using. The borrowing of thoughts and uncontrolled imitation completely deprive the speaker of his personality.
The complete collection of all twelve books of Marc Fabius Quintilian has survived to the present day, which cannot be said about his first work, of which only the name remains.
Conclusion
"The Instructions to the Orator" is a fundamental work on rhetoric. Quotes by Mark Fabius Quintilian are widely used both in pedagogy and in journalism and fully reveal the essence of oratory, starting from early childhood and ending with becoming a master of their craft. Having reached the present time, exercises, tips and rules for building speech find their application in many areas of modern life. That is how the great master of words continues to educate young speakers to this day.