Weighty Words, Suspect Speech: Fari in Roman Culture

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The language of the Romans possessed many verbs used to mean “to say” (aio, dico, loquor, ecc.), but only one of them expresses the efficacity of the speech: fari. In this paper, then, I will attempt to characterize as fully as possible the mode of speech that the Romans classify with this verb. As I will demonstrate, fari represents a way of speaking that far surpasses other, normal utterances in terms of its authority, efficacy, and credibility. However, it is for this very reason that fari also, rather paradoxically, always risks losing its trustworthiness and credibility. In the course of this study of fari, moreover, I consider some key terms in Roman culture, such as facundia, fama, and fabula, and the cultural models that these terms represent.