Suasoria

Suasoria is an exercise in rhetoric: a form of declamation in which the student makes a speech which is the soliloquy of an historical figure debating how to proceed at a critical junction in his life.

[1] As an academic exercise, the speech is delivered as if in court against an adversary and was based on the Roman rhetorical doctrine and practice.

[2] The ancient Roman orator Quintilian said that suasoria may call upon a student to address an individual or groups such as the Senate, the citizens of Rome, Greeks or barbarians.

[4] One of the earliest forms of this exercise, however, involved Cicero's practice of philosophical theses, which were addressed to the self.

Stulta est clementia cum tot ubique Vatibus occurras perituræ parcere chartæ.