Summary: The Ancient Romans right from when they were small were taught how to dominate social situations through the use of different rhetorical techniques. Some of these techniques were about being witty and dominating social situations through the use of humor. This in my opinion is one of the best ways to hold frame and become dominant in social situations.

Body: So this is inspired by the thread on Julius Caesar and him verbally dominating the pirates that captured him. Notice how he sets his frame through the use of witty remarks.

These types of skills were taught to Ancient Roman men right from when they were kids. The role of upper class Romans was to dominate, whether in combat or in the political arena. For the political arena, they needed to be able to hold frame, persuade others to their side and win debates. They underwent rigorous training in order to be able to do that.

Luckily many of these techniques survived until our days, because some of the manuscripts describing their training and textbooks they used have survived. One classical great in the arena of verbal domination was Cicero. He wrote a whole series of books that were meant to teach men rhetoric and how to dominate others through it.

Much of this work came out of the works of Aristotle. He taught that there are three ways to "persuade":

1) through authority - ethos

2) through logic - logos

3) through emotion - pathos

Right now, I will focus on pathos and more specifically on humor and being witty. There are two classic texts on the use of humor to dominate conversations: those of Cicero and Quintilian. Both of these texts are part of larger works on rhetoric and can be found on the internet for free. These works are translated from Latin.

Both recognized that persuasion through taking advantage of the other person's emotion was the best way and that humor was a key skill needed. For example, being able to reply to an insult in a witty way lets you hold frame and can often destroy your opponent.

Some of the things discussed in the works are very similar to what was discussed in Helitzer's book on humor. Helitzer's book is one of the books that DeAngelo recommended in order to become cocky+funny. Cicero was the master of this technique 2 000 years before our time.

I have analyzed the texts and organized them in a way as to be able to get all the relevant points and lessons easily.

Basically, the Romans divided humor in word-based humor and content based humor. The difference between the two can be seen through a translation test. If you use other words and the things stops being funny, then you are using word-based humor. If you use different words, but the story stays funny, then you are using content based humor.

I will focus on word-based humor and organized it using Helitzer's categories:

There are five basic play on word techniques:

1) double entendre – use of an ambiguous word or phrase that allows for it to be interpreted differently (double interpretation)

2) simple truth – this is the opposite of a double entendre and takes the explicit meaning of a word or idiom and interprets it literally

3) reforming – altering one or two words through changing letters, the spelling, or substituting a homonym or a word that rhymes in place of the usual word or words

4) the take off – first offers the acceptable interpretation of the cliché, followed by a realistic, but highly exaggerated commentary, frequently a double entendre

5) associations – utilize combinations of cliches or titles by relating different subjects together

For example in De Oratore, Cicero explains a reverse in this way:

“But you are aware that that is the most common kind of joke, when we expect one thing and another is said; in which case our own disappointed expectation makes us laugh.” (De Oratore)

Another illustration can come from an Ancient Roman jokebook that was discovered:

“A Kymean makes a big threshing floor, stands at one edge of it, and calls to his wife on the opposite side: “Can you see me?”

“Only just barely,” she calls back.

“O.K., one of these days, I’ll make a threshing floor so big that not only will I not be able to see you, but you will not be able to see me either.“

Notice how the joke was set up. First it was describing a normal situation, a guy working on a floor. However the reverse came in the last sentence about not being able to see the wife.

Another example of the same type of humor using a reverse, an unexpected twist at the end:

“Me and my wife, we were happy for 25 years. – And then we met.”

I cannot post the entire thing on here, since it is too long, but for those interested in the lessons, I did a huge analysis of all this here: Sharpen your wit: Tips on humor from the Ancient Romans

Conclusion If people are interested, I can start a series on the Red Pill reddit summarizing some of these lessons. Which specific aspects are you interested in?

The Ancient Romans were bad-ass and we are lucky that their techniques have survived until our day, so we can learn how to hold frame and be bad-ass just like them. :) Read classic texts, for they will teach you a lot of stuff that modern texts don't. Plus you get all this stuff for free.