Mitt Romney's Trump Speech: A Modern Philippic

On Thursday, Mitt Romney delivered a scathing speech against Donald Trump, the current frontrunner for the GOP nomination. This speech was a philippic, closely following the format of the great Athenian orator, Demosthenes, who delivered three speeches in a vain attempt to rally his fellow Athenians against Philip II of Macedon. Cicero, the great Roman statesman and orator, used the same type of rhetoric in his fourteen philippics against Marcus Antonius in the final days of the Roman Republic.

Using historical synthesis, I argue that Mitt Romney's philippic won't be a decisive factor in the fight for the GOP nomination.