De Inventione
On Invention
Author
Language
Year
c. 80 BC
Country
Roman Republic
Genre
Nonfiction / Essays / Treatise
graeco-roman
roman republic
De Inventione is a handbook for orators that Cicero composed when he was still a young man. Quintilian tells us that Cicero considered the work rendered obsolete by his later writings. Despite Cicero’s original plan to cover all five components of Rhetoric, the final work only deals with the first component, Invention. It is also credited with the first recorded use of the term "liberal arts" or artes liberales, though whether Cicero coined the term is unclear. The text also defines the concept of dignitas: dignitas est alicuius honesta et cultu et honore et verecundia digna auctoritas.Wikipedia →
