Ancient Authors
- The Works of Cicero
- Born Jan 3 103 B.C.E. and Died Dec 7 B.C.E. Marcus Tullius Cicero was one of the great philosophers to come out of the fall of the Roman Republic. He was also a lawyer and a politician, placing politics above philosophy. However, these positions can still clearly be seen throughout his writings. While Cicero is considered to be one of the great ancient philosophers and he was read well into the late 19th C and used as a basis for political ideologies for many such as St. Augustine, much of his writing is said to be unoriginal.
- Cicero (De Oratore)
- De Oratore contains quite a few types of humor. One of the first being the anecdote about salt. This is able to be seen as humor to the reader as well as to teach them a lesson. There are also examples of puns throughout, one being “Barking at me, master puppy.” De Oratore also explores the tendentious side of humor as there are racial slurs and stereotypes.
- According to Cicero, humor is something of a higher class and sophistication. To be able to understand humor and find it within intellectual works is to be of a higher social and educational standpoint in the eyes of Cicero. It also allows one to be more accessible.
- Humor in De Oratore is to convey a larger meaning. Humor is seen as a way to learn a lesson.
- Cicero (De Officiis)
- This humor is very much tendentious. It is what we would view today as bullying. To insult the flaws of another to gain personal meaning is wrong in today’s time but in De Officiis it is used to establish your power over the weak, and create you as a better person.
- In this work, Cicero feels that the only reason to bring about humor is in the presence of a flaw, specifically deformity.
- Humor in this work is to prove your overall greater power in the world over the weaker men.
- Josephus (Jewish Antiquities)
- Flavius Josephus, born 37 C.E., died 103 C.E., was a well-educated Jewish man. He knew both Hebrew and Greek languages. He wrote detailed histories of the Great Revolt while imprisoned. Works such as his Jewish Antiquities, and The Jewish War, for example, give us the insight to what happened to the Jewish people during that 500-year period, given that there will be some leeway in accuracy due to opinion and storytelling skills.
- This work is a recount of the Jewish history from the time of Cleopatra and King Ptolemy. It tells the story of Joseph and his adventures in saving the Jewish people as more and more Jewish cities come under siege of the king and queen.
- Humor throughout these accounts were mostly anecdotal as some witty comments would be said back and forth between entities. One being “Pardon him because of his age…” then believing that the elderly lost all knowledge that they once had which would now be seen as Alzheimer or dementia. He is saying that they are stealing from these people as they don’t know what they are agreeing to but as he is in the peak of his intellectual age then he may gain what is theirs back.
- In using humor, Joseph is able bring the King to his own level, humanizing him and all of his actions.
- Flavius Josephus, born 37 C.E., died 103 C.E., was a well-educated Jewish man. He knew both Hebrew and Greek languages. He wrote detailed histories of the Great Revolt while imprisoned. Works such as his Jewish Antiquities, and The Jewish War, for example, give us the insight to what happened to the Jewish people during that 500-year period, given that there will be some leeway in accuracy due to opinion and storytelling skills.
- Quintilian (Institutio)
- Marcus Fabius Quintilianus of Northern Spain lived from the year 35 to about the year 96. He was educated in Rome and became a teacher of rhetoric as he was able to combine his advocacy for law courts. He became the first teacher with a state salary teaching Latin Rhetoric. His major work, Institutio, was about his views on the educational process. He believes that the educational process begins in infancy and continues throughout life with the main goal being to be the perfect orator.
- The humor in Institutio is most all witty dicta.
- Quintilian sees humor as a tool to become the most powerful, educated person who you come in to contact with words jest, risqué, etc.
- Humor is a means of power. If you can bring someone down using your wit then you are victorious, if it bounces back on you then you have failed and the other has won the battle.
- Marcus Fabius Quintilianus of Northern Spain lived from the year 35 to about the year 96. He was educated in Rome and became a teacher of rhetoric as he was able to combine his advocacy for law courts. He became the first teacher with a state salary teaching Latin Rhetoric. His major work, Institutio, was about his views on the educational process. He believes that the educational process begins in infancy and continues throughout life with the main goal being to be the perfect orator.