Topica

Cicero's Topica is one of the canonical texts on ancient rhetorical theory, written by the greatest orator of the Roman period. This is the first full-scale commentary on this work in any modern language, and the first critical edition that is informed by a full analysis of its complicated transmission. In the Topica, Cicero recommends an Aristotelian theory of argumentation to an expert on Roman law; he does this by showing that arguments about matters of private law of the time can be described and methodically generated with the help of this theory. The introduction and the commentary elucidate the exact origins of the theory of argument used by Cicero. Tobias Reinhardt explains how the theory works and what role it played in Cicero's ideas about a reunification of rhetoric and philosophy on the one hand, and about a reform of the way legal knowledge was organized, presented, and accessed on the other. Since the Hellenistic writer who developed the particular version of the theory of argument Cicero uses is unlikely to be identical with the person who passed it on to him, a reconstruction of Cicero's main source for it is attempted, as well as a sketch of the intellectual context in which Cicero became familiar with it. Cicero's suggestions for a reform of Roman civil law have parallels in similar efforts within the legal profession. Reinhardt considers, therefore, how much common ground there is between Cicero and the jurists. The commentary pays equal attention to matters philosophical, rhetorical, legal, and philological.