Date of Award

6-1970

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Ancient Languages

First Advisor

Dr. Joseph S. White

Abstract

Color, as a figure of speech, is a small part of the art of rhetoric. The various definitions and uses of color in a selection of ancient writers form the subject of this thesis. The purpose is to present examples of col'o'r'es found in· Philippics I and II of Cicero, and in the·Panegyricus of Pliny the Younger. These examples will be correlated to the demands of the situation of each speaker. Cicero's speeches represent free oratory during the period of the late Republic; Pliny's speech represents epideictic oratory during the Empire. The first chapter of this thesis will serve as an introduction to the history and development of color in Roman rhetoric, with definitions and major examples of its meanings and uses, first as a non-technical term and then as a technical term. Major ancient writers quoted in Chapter I are Cicero, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Quintilian, Sallust, Seneca Rhetor and Juvenal. There are additional definitions and commentaries from modern writers.

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