RAIL

Friends in Rhetoric and Classics, this one’s for you.

The saying “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” gets thrown around a lot in a lot of different contexts. Apparently it’s a favorite in Washington as well. Witness the Washington Post on last week’s speech by Senator Ted Cruz, in which the Senator appropriates one of Cicero’s Cataline orations–almost word for word–to inveigh against President Obama.

At least he cites his source?

There’s a really nice breakdown of the original speech’s historical background here at the blog of classicist Charles MacNamara, to whom I owe thanks for the tip (via Twitter) about Cruz’s speech.