ABSTRACT
Cicero and Quintilian agree that a good orator must have a broad but thorough education, focused especially on language and literature. Quintilian believed that grammatici had stepped into a pedagogical area that the rhetores vacated out of their desire to avoid teaching less advanced students. The rhetorical ideal was a practical training which – as both Cicero and Quintilian agreed – relied less on handbooks and mock-speeches than on wide learning, good judgement, and innate talent. Cicero and Quintilian believed in the importance of a broad education for the aspiring orator; this breadth derived from the study of the liberal arts. Disapproval of a different kind was voiced as well, this time directed at women who showed too much interest and learning in literature, rhetoric and philosophy. Philosophy is the cultivation of wisdom, and wisdom is the knowledge of divine and human matters and their causes.
