To achieve the title of a great orator one must be a “good man.” Cato originally introduces the idea of a “good man” and Quintilian takes it and runs with it in chapter one of book twelve of Quintilian’s Institutes of Oratory outlining the makings of a “good man.” The driving thought behind Cato’s “good man” is that a man filled with evil will only speak evil things that are damaging, not encouraging to the world. Quintilian takes it a step farther by saying that no man that is not “good” can be labeled with the title of orator because the makings of a man come out in his speech.
Quintilian wrote an extensive list of demands thata man must meet in order to be called an orator. The idea of a “good man” is the overriding theme of Quintilian’s Institutes of Oratory because the characteristics of a “good man” cover every characteristic that Quintilian requires of a good orator. To be a “good man” he must expel all wisps of evil from his mind and “then, and then only, when it is free and master of itself, and when no other object harasses and distracts its attention, will it be able to keep in view the end to which it is devoted.” Quintilian strictly lays out the boundaries for an orator and in doing so he compiles a list of true orators and fortunately, Cicero was approved:
As proofs of his integrity, may it be mentioned his consulship in which he conducted himself with so much honor, his honorable administration of his province, his refusal to be one of the 20 commissioners, and during the civil wars, which fell with great severity on his times, his uprightness of mind, which was never swayed, either by hope or by fear, from adhering to the better party or the supporters of the commonwealth.
He is thought by some to have been deficient in courage, but he has given an excellent reply to this charge when he says that he was timid, not in encountering dangers, but in taking precautions against them, an assertion which he proved true at his death, to which he submitted with the noblest fortitude
Quintilian speaks very highly of Cicero throughout his writing, admiring his “eloquence” and his finely tuned passages. Some of Cicero’s finest work is portrayed in Against Catiline. Cicero delivered these speeches in 63 BC to the Roman Senate.
The purpose of Cicero’s well-delivered and finely articulated words was to warn the Roman government of Catiline’s plan to overthrow them. At a time when eloquence and rationale could have been abandoned Cicero maintained the attributes of a “good man” and presented a fine speech. The Catiline orations are an attack on Catiline to expose his extensive plans to win himself a title and take over the government. Cicero subtly embarrasses Catiline by asking him, “do you not see that your conspiracy is already arrested and rendered powerless by the knowledge which every one here possesses of it?” Cicero is carefully yet powerfully attacking Catiline and his evilness.
Cicero successfully lives up to Quintilian’s description of an orator, not only through his spoken words but also the actions that his words are taking. “As long as you, O Catiline, plotted against me while I was the consul elect, I defended myself not with a public guard, but by my own private diligence.” Catiline was proven an evil man, never fit to be an orator. Cicero caught Catiline in his acts and unveiled the evilness that he held within. Together, Cicero and Catiline, respectively, portray Quintilian’s idea of a “good man” and his idea of an “evil man.” Catiline did not make for an orator because evil thoughts filled his mind and the violence that he expelled in response to Cicero confirmed this. A man’s speech is defined by his personality and Cicero maintained his roll as a “good man” that Quintilian so believed in, “in speaking of Cicero, have often said, according to the common mode of speech, and shall continue to say, that he was a perfect orator.”