Activity

Imitating Hortensia regardless of gender

Characters:

Hortensia

Theme: The education of children

Competencies

Competence in Linguistic Communication

Multilingual Competence

Personal, social and learning to learn competence

Citizen Competition

Competence in cultural awareness and expressions

Subjects and year by Educational System

Spain > Classical culture > 1st ESO > Classical roots of today's world. Everyday life

Enunciation

<img title="Women's Legacy logo" src="//inclusion.womenslegacyproject.eu/images/LogoWL.svg" /><hr />Read the introduction and the excerpt from the speech of the Roman orator Hortensia.&nbsp;
The second triumvirate issued an edict stating that the fourteen hundred richest women in Rome should contribute to military expenses. The matrons tried to mediate with the wives of the triumvirs, but, failing to do so, they went to the Forum and Hortensia, representing all of them, gave a famous speech that obtained favorable results. This speech is collected by the historian Appian.&nbsp; &nbsp; ... Why should we, who have no share in magistracies, honors, generalships, nor at all in the government of public affairs, pay tribute, for which reasons you engage in personal struggles that lead to such great calamities? Why do you say we are at war? And when were there no wars? When have women contributed tributes? Their very condition exempts them from it in all humanity.... &nbsp;
Our own translation from Antonio Sancho Royo (1985). &nbsp; Hortensia was a contemporary of Cicero, the most important orator that Rome had. She was the daughter of Hortensius, an orator who, before Cicero appeared, was considered to be the best. &nbsp;
According to Cicero, these are the steps that must be taken to make the speech:&nbsp;
1.-Inventio: searching for arguments.&nbsp;
2.-Dispositio: proper distribution of those arguments, chained together.
3.-Elocutio: art of decorating ideas by giving them the precise syntax.&nbsp;
4.-Memoria: remembering each piece of information in its proper place.&nbsp;
5.-Actio: practicing everything related to the moment of delivery of the speech: gestures, voice, emphasis, etc.
As for the speech itself, it should consist of four parts:&nbsp;
1.-Introduction (exordium); 2.-Exposition (narratio); 3.-Argumentation (argumentatio) with a positve facet (probatio) and a negative one, in which real or possible objections are rejected, (refutatio); 4.-Conclusion (perotatio).&nbsp;
Answer the questions:&nbsp; &nbsp; 1.- Following Cicero's advice, make a short speech defending any current injustice. &nbsp;
2.- What is public speaking for?&nbsp;
3.- Does oratory exist today?&nbsp;
4.- Valerius Maximus, a contemporary writer of Hortensia, points out that the speaker followed her father's style so closely that it seemed to revive him in her speech:
"Quintus Hortensius then revived in his female offspring and inspired the words of his daughter; if his male offspring had wanted to imitate his strength, the great heritage of Hortensius's eloquence would not have been cut short by this single speech by a woman.&rdquo;&nbsp;
The qualities of the parents are usually imitated and learned by their sons and daughters in an almost natural way. Do you know of other cases in which these family qualities have been censored on the basis of gender? &nbsp;
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Observations and context

Cicero in Brutus, a history of Roman oratory, provides examples of women (Lelia, her daughters −the Mucias− and her granddaughters −the Licinias−) who possessed an education and oratorical ability with which they could have become excellent orators, as used to happen with men of the same social status, if the exercise of judicial and political oratory had not been vetoed for Roman women. Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, also enjoyed an excellent preparation to pass it on to her children. Well into the 1st century BC, in an area of clear expansion of women's rights, three Roman matrons (Hortensia, Maesia and Gaia Afrania) practiced law.

Description

Getting to know the figure of Hortensia and imitating her, defending some injustice through a speech. The same situation as Hortensia’s, who was unable to exercise the trade of speaker despite her great ability, can be found in other women of other times.

Answer

Documents

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