You Can Do It If You Really Want

Most people probably think that Cicero, a very accomplished Roman orator, was born with a talent for speaking and oratory. But, as this passage from Robert Harris' Imperium clearly shows, this was not at all the case.

"Cicero's voice at this time was not the fearsome instrument it later became, but harsh and occasionally prone to stutter. I believe the problem was that he had so many words teeming in his head that at moments of stress they jammed in his throat, as when a pair of sheep, pressed by the flock behind them, try at the same time to squeeze through a gate. In any case, these words were often too high-falutin for his audience to grasp. 'The Scholar', his restless listeners used to call him, or 'the Greek' - and the terms were not meant as compliments. Although no one doubted his talent for oratory, his frame was too weak to carry his ambition, and the strain on his vocal cords of several hours' advocacy, often in the open air and in all seasons, could leave him rasping and voiceless for days. Chronic insomnia and poor digestion added to his woes." (pp. 4-5)

In order to overcome these handicaps, Cicero decided to undergo training in Greece and Asia Minor.

"The young man who stood on the quayside that spring morning was thin and round-shouldered, with an unnaturally long neck, in which a large Adam's apple, as big as a baby's fist, plunged up and down whenever he swallowed. His eyes were protuberant, his skin sallow, his cheeks sunken; in short he was the picture of ill health." (p. 5)

Here is a sample of the regimen he then embarked upon.

"Molon's first action was to feed him that evening a bowl of hard-boiled eggs with anchovy sauce and, when Cicero had finished that - not without some complaining, I can tell you - to follow it with a lump of red meat, seared over charcoal, accompanied by a cup of goat's milk....

"At dawn, the physical exercises began. 'Speaking in the forum,' said Molon, 'is comparable to running in a race. It requires stamina and strength.' He threw a fake punch at Cicero, who let out a loud 'Oof!' and staggered backwards, almost falling over. Molon had him stand with his legs apart, his knees rigid, then bend from the waist twenty times to touch the ground on either side of his feet. After that, he made him lie on his back with his hands clasped behind his head and repeated sit up without shifting his legs. He made him lie on his front and raise himself solely by the strength of his arms, again twenty times, again without bending his knees. That was the regime on the first day, and each day afterwards more exercises were added and their duration increased. Cicero again slept soundly, and now had no trouble eating, either."

"For the actual declamatory training, Molon took his eager pupil out of the shaded courtyard and into the heat of midday, and had him recite his exercise pieces - usually a trial scene or a soliloquy from Menander - while walking up a steep hill without pausing. In this fashion, with the lizards scattering underfoot and only the scratching of the cicadas in the olive trees for an audience, Cicero strengthened his lungs and learned how to gain the maximum output of words from a single breath. 'Pitch your delivery in the middle range,' instructed Molon. 'That is where the power is. Nothing too high or low.' In the afternoons, for speech projection, Molon took him down to the shingle beach, paced out eighty yards (the maximum range of the human voice) and made him declaim against the boom and hiss of the sea - the nearest thing, he said, to the murmur of three thousand people in the open air, or the background mutter of several hundred men in conversation in the senate. These were distractions Cicero would have to get used to." (pp. 7-8)

There was more, but it should be clear that Cicero became perhaps the greater orator the world has ever known by means of his own determination and willingness to make the sacrifices necessary to overcome his personal handicaps. And, this is an important lesson for everyone. Epictetus summed it up perfectly back in the first century AD, "First, decide who you would be. Then, do what you must do."

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