Tom's Learning Notes

On the Orator (Latin: De Oratore) is a dialogue by Cicero on the qualities of the ideal public speaker. Addressed to his brother Quintus, it was written in 55 BCE during a period of absence from public life under the first triumvirate. It was set a generation earlier in 91 BCE, on the eve of the Social War. The dramatis personae are prominent statesmen of the time:  Lucius Licinius Crassus, Quintus Mucius Scaevola, Marcus Antonius Orator, Gaius Aurelius Cotta and Publius Sulpicius Rufus

On the Orator at online book stores: Amazon

Free online texts

Internet Archive: De Oratore Books I & II, translated by E.W. Sutton and H. Rackham . Public domain Loeb edition in Latin and English. Multiple formats.

Internet Archive: On Oratory and Orators, translated by J.S. Watson (1860). Multiple formats.

Latin Library: De Oratore. Latin text, HTML format.

Perseus: De Oratore, edited by A.S. Wilkins (1902). HTML and XML formats.

Pomona College: De Oratore Books I to III, translated by J.S. Watson, formatted by C. Chinn. HTML format.

Wikisource: On Oratory, translated by William Guthrie (1822). Multiple formats. Partial text.

Other Resources

Academia.edu: The Stoicism of the Ideal Orator: Cicero's Hellenistic Ideal, by Brandon Inabinet.

History of Philosophy without any gaps: Rhetorical Questions: Cicero - podcast by philosopher Peter Adamson.

History of Philosophy without any gaps: Raphael Woolf on Cicero - podcast by philosopher Peter Adamson.

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Cicero, by Edward Clayton.

Silva Rhetoricae: Outline of De Oratore.

University of Cologne: Cicero De Oratore I and Greek Philosophical Tradition, by Eckart Schütrumpf.

Wikipedia: De Oratore

The Great Conversation: Further reading at Tom's Learning Notes

Plato: Gorgias. 

Plato: Phaedrus - Scaevola advocates Plato's portrait of Socrates in this dialogue as a model.

Aristotle: Rhetoric.

Latin resources: Learn to read Latin texts in the original.