|A departure from logical progression in a speech.| Cicero, in
his Defense of the poet Archias, demonstrates the rhetorical
effectiveness of the digression. There, in a suit whose issue
was the Roman citizenship of an individual, he provides a long
discussion on the virtues of literature and their cultural
value. This both diverts attention from the issue at hand
(whether Archias was indeed a Roman or whether he should be
expelled) and leads effectively back to it: to the extent that
Cicero prompts his hearers to value literature, they will be
inclined to sympathize with someone who professes literature
(and has written positively for the Roman republic). Cicero's
digression succeeded, and it is presumed his suit for Archias
was won. A second example of digressions, from a different
period altogether, can be found in Jonathan Swift's Tale of a
Tub, in which he meta-rhetorically devotes an entire chapter, a
digression, in praise of digressions (Section VII), thus
comically combining encomium with digressio. |S