Defining dialogue in ancient Rome: Cicero’s De oratore, drama and the notion of everyday conversation

This article investigates the process whereby Greek dialogue was reinvested in the Roman world, based on a study of Cicero’s De oratore. This work is considered in the light of classical theories of the literary genre developed in the 1st century BCE, under the influence of Hellinistic research, and in the light of the modern notion of interaction. Situated on the frontier between drama and the social practice of conversation, philosophical dialogue established itself as a legitimate constitutive discourse in the field of Roman literature.