The City Politics Podcast Episode 18 - Political Oratory and Rhetoric

In the closing months of 63 BCE, Marcus Tullius Cicero stood before the Senate of Rome and confronting his enemy Catiline uttered perhaps one of the most famous lines of political oratory:

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?

Thus began the first of four speeches against Catiline that turned the republic against him and saved it, at least for a generation.

Political speech is incredibly potent. In the mouths of some it elevates our best nature, in others it nourishes our darkest thoughts.

Today we will give you the City view on political oratory and rhetoric.

Our guest is Dennis Glover - an academic, newspaper columnist, policy adviser and speechwriter to Australia’s most senior political, business and community leaders. An often outspoken political commentator, his books include An Economy is not a Society, The Art of Great Speeches and Orwell’s Australia. He is also the author of two novels: Factory 19 and the Last Man in Europe.