[hprints-00683151, v2] Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Pius II ... - Hprints.org

hprints-00683151, version 2 - 19 Mar 2013
[5] I have come to the conclusion that I should, nay I must speak up in this situation
of grave danger to the Sacred Council, as I have not as yet heard anyone say what
you shall hear from me now, if you so permit. And as I see that you are ready to
listen, I wish that I may have the same ability to speak and authority to convince
which Demosthenes 146 used when he spoke in the Athenian Senate for Ktesiphon
against Aeschines 147 .
[6] For I do not despise the art of speaking and eloquence even though I am aware
that many in this assembly claim to detest them, and do not have any eloquence at
all, or want to have it. But in my own opinion – and Cicero is my witness: The power
of eloquence is the mistress of things … It is her alone that makes us able to learn
what we do not know and to teach others what we do know. 148 Nobody knows
better than I how useful eloquence could be to me, for I know many things and see
them in my mind 149 , but I cannot explain them to you as well as I would since I am
lacking in that which alone has the power to bestow the gift of speaking. 150
146 Demosthenes (384-322 BC: Greek statesman
147 This speech was considered by Renaissance humanists to be a classical masterpiece of rhetorics
148 Cicero, De natura deorum, 2, 59, 148
149 ”mentis luminibus”: “by the lights of my mind”
150 ”orandi et exorandi”
47