Cicero Speech Info

Principal Rhetorical and Literary Devices 

1. Alliteration: repetition of the same letter at beginning of words or syllables: Marcus me momordit.

2. Anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis: non feram, non sinam, non patiar

3. Anastrophe: inversion of usual word order (e.g., preposition after the word it governs): te propter vivo (instead of the expected propter te vivo)

4. Aposiopesis: breaking off in the middle of a sentence : quem ego . . . sed non possum pergere. ("Whom I . . . but I cannot go on.")

5. Apostrophe: addressing a person who is not present: O maiores, quid diceretis de hac re? ("Oh ancestors, what would you say about this matter?")

6. Asyndeton: omission of conjunctions: videt, sentit, scit.

7. Chiasmus: "a-b-b-a" arrangement of words: magnas urbes oppida parva (adjective, noun, noun, adjective)

8. Ellipsis: omission of words: Dixit me inventum. ("He said I had been found." esse is missing).

9. Hendiadys: use of two nouns together to express a noun modified by an adjective: luctus et labor (meaning "grievous toil")

10. Hyperbole: exaggeration. Catilina est mons vitiorum. ("Catiline is a mountain of vices.")

11. Hysteron proteron: placing first what the reader might expect to come last mortuus est et hostem inruit ("He died and he rushed against the enemy")

12. Litotes: use of a negative to express a strong positive Haud stultus erat Cicero. ("Cicero was very intelligent").

13. Metaphor: expression of meaning through an image Horatius est lux litterarum Latinarum. ("Horace is the light of Latin literature.")

14. Metonymy: substitution of one word for another that it suggests Neptunus me terret (to mean, "the sea frightens me").

15. Onomatopoeia: use of words that sound like their meaning Murmurant multi (the "m"’s produce the sound of murmuring).

16. Oxymoron: use of an apparent contradiction parvum monstrum

17. Personification: attribution of human characteristics to something not human Ipsa saxa dolent. ("The rocks themselves grieve")

18. Pleonasm: use of superfluous words Oculis me videt. ("She sees me with her eyes.")

19. Polysyndeton: use of many conjunctions et videt et sentit et scit

20. Prolepsis (anticipation): use of a word sooner than it would logically appear submersis obruit puppis ("he overwhelms the sunken ships").

21. Simile: comparison using a word like sicut, similis, or velut. Volat sicut avis. ("He flies like a bird.")

22. Synecdoche: use of part to express a whole Prora in portam navigavit. ("The ship sailed into the harbor." prora [prow] for navis [ship]).

23. Tmesis: the separation of a compound word into two parts saxo cere comminuit brum (for saxo cerebrum comminuit: "He smashed his brain with a rock.").

24. Tricolon crescens (ascending tricolon): combination of three elements, increasing in size non ferar, non patiar, non tolerabo

25. Zeugma: use of one word in two different senses simultaneously Aeneas tulit dolorem et patrem Troia. (Aeneas carried grief and his father from Troy)