Enos – Roman Rhetoric: Revolution and the Greek Influence

Richard Enos – Roman Rhetoric: Revolution and the Greek Influence Chapter One: Forces Shaping the Transition from Greek to Roman Rhetoric Chapter One is concerned with offering an explanation of the political and social forces that motivated Athens to promote rhetoric not only at home but in colonies and among allies in Sicily and Southern Italy.  The movement of rhetoric to Rome itself wasn’t so much a direct relationship between Athens and... Read More

Leff – The Topics of Argumentative Invention in Latin Rhetorical Theory from Cicero to Boethius

Leff, Michael C. “The Topics of Argumentative Invention in Latin Rhetorical Theory from Cicero to Boethius.” Rhetorica 1 1 (1983): 23-44. Print. 21 L. provides a nice definition of topoi at the beginning of this piece: “rhetoricians must draw their starting points from accepted beliefs and values relative to the audience and the subject of discourse.  When these beliefs and values are considered at a high level of generality, they become... Read More

Logie – I Have No Predecessor to Guide My Steps: Quintilian and the Roman Construction of Authorship

Logie, John. “‘I Have No Predecessor to Guide My Steps’: Quintilian and the Roman Construction of Authorship.” Rhetoric Review 22.4 (2003): 353-73. 20 Summary: Logie argues that Quintilian – despite being pretty derivative in his works – stakes out a claim to authorial originality in Book XII of Institutio Oratoria; in doing so, Q.s claim to authorial authenticity and proprietarian ideology is voiced in surprising modern terms.  Logie... Read More

Cogan – Rodolphus Agricola and the Semantic Revolutions of the History of Invention

Cogan, Marc. “Rodolphus Agricola and the Semantic Revolutions of the History of Invention.” Rhetorica 2 2 (1984): 163-94. Print. 31 C. claims that Agricola’s de Inventione dialectica was important because it considered invention via commonplaces in the study of logic instead of rhetoric.  So, A.’s work was “seen as an example of rhetorical forms of reasoning replacing rigorously logical forms, and its popularity was an indication... Read More

Selections from De Inventione – Cicero

Selections from De Inventione – Cicero Cicero begins by noting that language has been one of the original distresses of men, causing pain and problems. Education cures the savage influence/impulse of life without civilization.  Eloquence was central to this turn. Rhetoric – in this account – operated as a mechanism to prevent internal armed conflict and to solidify city-states. The civilizing influence of eloquence had a dark side when men... Read More