Netherlands VWO 6 (eindexamenjaar) Latin language and culture

1. Central exam author: Cicero

Set texts: the power of the word · Genre: Rhetorical prose · Cultural-historical context

• Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Speech – Rhetoric is the art of using words to persuade an audience. Every speech has a speaker, an audience, a message and an occasion. Speakers persuade through three appeals: ethos (trust in the speaker), logos (reasons and evidence) and pathos (feelings). A speech is built in five steps — invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery — and figures of speech make it memorable. Rhetoric has power: it can teach and unite, but it can also seduce and manipulate, so a good listener checks the evidence.