Cattivi e buoni oratori, cattive e buone abitudini. La corretta eloquentia e la ricerca del consenso nell'epistolario di Plinio il Giovane

Starting from the interpretation of silence as a mechanism of interactive communication, this paper explores the notion of correct eloquence based on the emotional interaction between the speaker and his audience in the early empire oratory and pays attention to Pliny the Younger’s definition and interpretation of the rhetorical mechanism of the public consensus. It also focuses on the description of the performance of the vir bonus dicendi peritus in Pliny’s epistles and its impact on the attendees’ feelings. By portraying ‘bad’ and ‘good’ orators and through the censure (or praise) of the literary tastes of his contemporary audience Pliny points to the crucial role of the consensus, the ‘public approval’, in the formation of the intellectual in the early empire aristocratic society.