A New History of Classical Rhetoric

by George A. Kennedy

Overview

George Kennedy's three volumes on classical rhetoric have long been regarded as authoritative treatments of the subject. This new volume, an extensive revision and abridgment of The Art of Persuasion in Greece, The Art of Rhetoric in the Roman World, and Greek Rhetoric under Christian Emperors, provides a comprehensive history of classical rhetoric, one that is sure to become a standard for its time.


Kennedy begins by identifying the rhetorical features of early Greek literature that anticipated the formulation of "metarhetoric," or a theory of rhetoric, in the fifth and fourth centuries b.c.e. and then traces the development of that theory through the Greco-Roman period. He gives an account of the teaching of literary and oral composition in schools, and of Greek and Latin oratory as the primary rhetorical genre. He also discusses the overlapping disciplines of ancient philosophy and religion and their interaction with rhetoric. The result is a broad and engaging history of classical rhetoric that will prove especially useful for students and for others who want an overview of classical rhetoric in condensed form.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400821471
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	07/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	524 KB

About the Author

George A. Kennedy is Paddison Professor of Classics, Professor of Comparative Literature, and Adjunct Professor of Speech Communication at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

Preface
Ch. 1 Introduction: The Nature of Rhetoric 3
Ch. 2 Persuasion in Greek Literature before 400 B.C. 11
Ch. 3 Greek Rhetorical Theory from Corax to Aristotle 30
Plato's Gorgias 35
Plato's Phaedrus 39
Isocrates 43
The Rhetoric for Alexander 49
Aristotle 51
Ch. 4 The Attic Orators 64
Lysias 65
Demosthenes 68
Ch. 5 Hellenistic Rhetoric 81
Theophrastus 84
Later Peripatetics 87
Demetrius, On Style 88
The Stoics 90
The Academics 93
The Epicureans 93
Asianism 95
Hermagoras and Stasis Theory 97
Ch. 6 Early Roman Rhetoric 102
Cato the Elder 106
Roman Orators of the Late Second and Early First Centuries B.C. 111
Latin Rhetoricians 115
Cicero's On Invention 117
The Rhetoric for Herennius 121
Ch. 7 Cicero 128
Cicero's Orations in the Years from 81 to 56 B.C. 129
On the Orator 140
For Milo and Cicero's Later Speeches 147
Brutus and Orator 151
Ch. 8 Rhetoric in Augustan Rome 159
Greek Rhetoricians of the Second Half of the First Century B.C. 160
Dionysius of Halicarnassus 161
Declamation and Seneca the Elder 166
Ch. 9 Latin Rhetoric in the Silver Age 173
Quintilian 177
Discussions of the "Decline of Eloquence" 186
Pliny the Younger 192
Fronto and Gellius 196
Apuleius 199
Ch. 10 Greek Rhetoric under the Roman Empire 201
Progymnasmata 202
Hermogenes and the Formation of the Hermogenic Corpus 208
Prolegomena 217
Other Greek Rhetorical Treatises 224
Ch. 11 The Second Sophistic 230
Dio Chrysostom 233
Polemon and Herodes Atticus 237
Aclius Aristides 239
Sophistry from the Late Second to the Early Fourth Century 241
The Sophistic Renaissance of the Fourth Century 242
Prohaeresius 243
Himerius 245
Libanius 248
Themistius 251
Synesius 252
The "University" of Constantinople 254
The School of Gaza 255
The Decline of the Schools 256
Ch. 12 Christianity and Classical Rhetoric 257
Christian Panegyric 260
Gregory of Nazianzus 261
Other Major Figures of the Fourth Century 263
The Latin Fathers 264
Saint Augustine 265
Ch. 13 The Survival of Classical Rhetoric from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages 271
The Decline in the East 271
The Decline in the West 273
Latin Grammarians of Later Antiquity 274
The "Minor" Latin Rhetoricians 275
Martianus Capella 279
Cassiodorus 279
Isidore of Seville 280
Other Late Latin Works on Rhetoric 280
Bede and Alcuin 281
Boethius 282
Bibliography 285
Index 297

Editorial Reviews

"The panoptic vision, the reliable accounts, and deeply conservative view of what constitutes rhetoric and rhetorical theory have justly made these books standard for classicists and other disciplines. . . . Many of the qualities admired in the three volumes are transferred elegantly to the briefer format. There are few scholars who could construct such a compilation."

Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews

"The discipline of rhetoric, as Mr. Kennedy shows meticulously, was central to ancient life."

The Economist

"The panoptic vision, the reliable accounts, and deeply conservative view of what constitutes rhetoric and rhetorical theory have justly made these books standard for classicists and other disciplines. . . . Many of the qualities admired in the three volumes are transferred elegantly to the briefer format. There are few scholars who could construct such a compilation."

Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"The panoptic vision, the reliable accounts, and deeply conservative view of what constitutes rhetoric and rhetorical theory have justly made these books standard for classicists and other disciplines. . . . Many of the qualities admired in the three volumes are transferred elegantly to the briefer format. There are few scholars who could construct such a compilation."—Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews

From the Publisher