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Cicero

Brutus, or On Eminent Orators Passage 30

Passage 30 of 334

Canonical reference 30

Latin

perseus-cicero-brutus-lat

sed ut intellectum est quantam vim haberet accurata et facta quodam modo oratio, tum etiam magistri dicendi multi subito exstiterunt. Tum Leontinus Gorgias, Thrasymachus Calche donius, Protagoras Abderites , Prodicus Cius, Hippias Elius in honore magno fuit ; aliique multi temporibus eisdem docere se profitebantur, arrogantibus sane verbis, quem ad modum causa inferior - ita enim loquebantur - dicendo fieri superior posset.

English AI-generated translation, non-official

Codex gpt-5.6-sol · Non-official working translation · 2026-09-11

"But once men understood how much power lay in carefully prepared and, so to speak, constructed speech, many teachers of speaking suddenly appeared. At that time Gorgias of Leontini, Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, Protagoras of Abdera, Prodicus of Ceos, and Hippias of Elis were held in great honor; and many others in the same period professed to teach, in decidedly arrogant terms, how the weaker cause, as they called it, could be made the stronger by speaking."

French AI-generated translation, non-official

Codex gpt-5.6-sol · Non-official working translation · 2026-09-11

«Mais, dès qu'on comprit quelle puissance possédait un discours soigné et en quelque manière façonné, de nombreux maîtres de parole surgirent soudain. Alors Gorgias de Léontinoi, Thrasymaque de Chalcédoine, Protagoras d'Abdère, Prodicos de Céos et Hippias d'Élis furent tenus en grand honneur; beaucoup d'autres, à la même époque, prétendaient enseigner, en termes assurément arrogants, comment une cause inférieure, car c'était leur expression, pouvait devenir supérieure par le discours.»

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