Cicero's Rhetoric Thought And Its Application In Court Debate

Cicero was the rhetorician who had the greatest influence on the rhetoric theory and practice of later generations in ancient Rome.He was famous for his eloquence and left behind many court speeches.The five abilities of his speaker and the six structural theories of his speech are theoretical generalizations based on the practice of court speeches and have far-reaching influence on future generations.The court debate is an activity in which both parties express their views,arguments and refutations on the facts of the case and the application of the law under the auspices of the court during the trial of the case.The court debate relies on the expression of language,and rhetoric is the core of good language expression.This paper holds this point of agreement and discusses it.This article is divided into four parts.The first part: Cicero and the rhetoric of ancient Rome.This paper briefly introduces rhetoric thoughts of rhetoricians in the " Hellenistic" period,mainly including Theophrastus,Demetrius and Hermagoras of the " Preceding School" as well as Quintilianus rhetoric thoughts,with emphasis on Cicero's macro rhetoric thoughts and his speaker's five abilities of invention,arrangement,style,memory and delivery,as well as his speech structure theory-introduction,statements of facts,division,proof,refutation and conclusion.The second part: Court Debate and Its General Methods.The concept,characteristics,skills and methods of court debates are clarified.The first two parts pave the way for the latter part.The third part: The application of Cicero's rhetoric thought in our country's court debate.On the one hand,Cicero's rhetoric concept mentioned above is applied to criminal defenses,providing guidance from the invention,arrangement,style and other aspects of the defense,and on the other hand,it is applied to second stage debates,emphasizing the external forms of voice and non-verbal during debates.The fourth part: The significance of Cicero's rhetoric thought in court debate.This paper briefly introduces the methodological significance of strengthening the perceptual persuasion,expression and logical thinking abilities of both sides in the debate.At the same time,it also points out the inappropriateness between Cicero's rhetoric thought and today's practice,and takes its essence to remove its dross so as to better guide practice.Through the study of these four parts,Cicero's court speech practice and text speech are combined with today's court debates,in order to improve the debate ability of both sides of the debate,so as to provide practical guidance for China's judicial practice and promote the realization of its own value and social value.