Dr. Katherine Heenan
English 472
Spring 2007
Herrick Notes
Herrick, James. A History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction. 3rd edition. New York: Allyn
and Bacon, 2005
Chapter Five
Rhetoric at Rome
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adapted what had been created by the Greeks—both in its form and its subject-matter
Greek-based rhetorical studies at the center of a liberal education in Rome
o rhetoric was a means of achieving personal success
o provided a method for conducting political debates
o developed the verbal skills that indicated refinement, wisdom, and
accomplishment (93)
Cicero and Quintilian
 wrote extensive treatises on and developed methods of teaching rhetoric
 successful to the extent that their methods taught in Europe up to the point of the
American Revolution
 Borrowing, Practicing, Teaching
 Two Leading Teachers
 Cicero “The Greatest Roman Orator (106-43BC)
 Quintilian “The Greatest Roman Teacher” (35-100AD)
Cicero
 derived his theory and teaching from many Sources
 Thought Aristotle's notion of ethos developed in the speech only was inadequate.
 In De Inventione, Cicero advances his five canons of oratory.
 The first of the canons is invention [inventio], which the discovery of arguments.
 The second canon is arrangement [dispositio] or the distribution of arguments in an
effective order. Arrangement is a matter of composing the materials for a speech
into an intelligible and effective order.
 The third canon, expression [elocutio], focused on the appropriate language for a
speech. Rhetors must convey their arguments in a striking, persuasive, and moving
manner.
 The fourth canon is memory [memoria], the firm mental grasp of words of a speech.
Since orators spoke from memory, a trained memory was essential to the public
speaker.
 Fifth, delivery [pronuntiatio] is the control of the voice and the body in a dignified
manner. A speech in Rome was a performance, and the skilled orator had presence,
poise, power and grace.
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De Inventione
o Stasis System
 Issues of Fact
 Issues of Definition
Herrick, Ch 5
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 Issues of Quality
 Issues of Procedure
Stasis and Topics
o Stasis -- a stopping point (power of naming)
o Fact -- is it? Does it exist
o Definition -- what is it?
o Value -- is it good or bad?
o Action -- what does it do?
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Topics -- common places
o Progress is good
o Anyone can become president
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Three purposes of speech
o To teach
o To delight
o To persuade
Humor
o Orators must maintain dignity in their use of humor, which means that the audience's
views must be respected.
o Cicero notes that humor should not detract from an orator's dignity by attacking
things that ought not to be laughed at.
o There are limits to what is laughable, meaning that some things one ought not to
make fun of.
o Such items include wickedness and real human suffering.
o The rhetor using humor must be careful not to offend popular sensibilities.
o Cicero adds that the orator must not become a buffoon or a mere mimic.
Cicero divided his loci of judicial pleading into the categories, attributes of the person and
attributes of the act.
Cicero held that eloquence and wisdom must be united in the orator.
Eloquence without wisdom was merely a swirl of words, while wisdom without eloquence
benefited little.
Cicero viewed the eloquence of the wise to be the foundation of civilization.
Implied in his emphasis on wisdom is Cicero's concern for personal character.
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Hermagoras of Temnos
The Greeks were the source of topical systems. Hermagoras of Temnos, a Greek rhetorician of
the second century B.C., was particularly important in this regard. He classified judicial
arguments according to what he called "issues," identifying three types: (1) conjectural, (2)
legal and (3) juridical. Hermagoras also developed a famous method for analyzing arguments.
He divided arguments into a "thesis" and a "hypothesis." The thesis was a general premise in
an argument, the equivalent of the first claim or "major premise" of a syllogism. The hypothesis
was a conclusion drawn from the thesis combined with a particular premise applying the thesis
to a given case.
Hermagoras’s Issues, Sources of Cicero’s Categories
 Conjectural Issues
 Legal Issues
 Juridical Issues
Herrick, Ch 5
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The Topical Systems
 Attributes of the person
 name, nature, manner of life, fortune, habit, feelings, interests, purposes,
achievements, accidents, speeches made
 Attributes of the act
 topics coherent with the act
 topics involved in the performance of the act
 Adjuncts of the act
 consequences of the act
Quintilian
 The Good Man Speaking Well—Quintilian defined rhetoric as the art of the good citizen
speaking well. Thus, rhetoric has a moral function.
 The rhetoric of deception was of no interest to Quintilian.
 Rather, he sought to cast the orator in the role of a good citizen intent on employing
rhetorical powers for the benefit of the society.
 For Quintilian, however, the "good" orator must be a culturally conservative Roman citizen
and an honorable person, one who adds to such virtues certain natural gifts that have been
honed through practice and careful instruction.
Quintilian taught his students to think of judicial speeches as divided into five parts, an
approach common to other Roman rhetorics.
o The first part, the exordium, was an introduction designed to dispose the audience to
listen to the speech.
o The second part, the narratio, was a statement of the facts essential to
understanding the case, and intended to reveal the essential nature of the subject
about which they were to render a decision.
o The third part of the judicial speech was the proof or confirmatio, which was a section
designed to offer evidences in support of claims advanced during the narratio.
o Fourth came the confutatio or the refutation in which counter-arguments were
answered.
o Finally the peroratio or conclusion was presented, a section in which the orator
demonstrated again the full strength of the case presented.
Questions
 Definite questions
 Indefinite questions
Bases of Quintilian
 existence (like fact or conjectures)
 definition (like juridical or definition)
 quality
Sources of Proof
 from the senses
 from common belief
 from laws, contracts, and agreements
 from admission
Longinus
On the Sublime is concerned with the emotive power of language.
Herrick, Ch 5
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4
Longinus' theory of language's potency is organized around a concept he terms "the sublime," a
measure of the degree of emotional impact that literature has on readers.
identified five sources of great writing.
o First, "vigor of mental conception."
o Second, "strong and inspired emotion."
o Third, the "adequate fashioning of figures (both of speech and of thought)."
o Fourth, "nobility of diction," including the appropriate choice of words and "the use of
figurative and artistic language."
o Fifth, dignified and distinguished word-arrangement.
Second Sophistic
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was characterized by oratory of display—speeches presented strictly for entertainment featuring
feats of memory and dramatic delivery.
 These speeches also tended not to avoid controversial topics.
 This period in rhetorical history is also characterized by an effort on the part of Sophists to preserve
elements of Hellenistic culture.
 Finally, many of the Sophists active during this period were educators training administrators to
perform governmental functions.
Terminology
1. delectare—Latin term for "to delight;" one of Cicero's three functions or goals of rhetoric.
2. dispositio or arrangement—The distribution of arguments thus discovered in the proper order,
one of Cicero's five canons of oratory.
3. docere—Latin term for "to teach;" one of Cicero's three functions or goals of rhetoric.
4. elocutio or style—The fitting of the proper language to the invented material of a speech, one of
Cicero's five canons of rhetoric.
5. hypothesis—In Hermagoras' system, a conclusion drawn from a thesis or general premise
combined with a particular premise that applies the thesis to a given case.
6. inventio or invention—The discovery of valid or seemingly valid arguments.
7. topica or topical systems—Systems for discovering arguments.
8. movere—Latin term for "to persuade, or to move an audience's emotions;" one of Cicero's three
functions or goals of rhetoric.
9. perfectus orator or complete orator—The orator as a leader who embodied and articulated the
society's values.
10. pronuntiatio—The control of voice and body in a manner suitable to the dignity of the subject
matter and the style.
11. stasis system —System for discovering arguments by identifying points where clash or
disagreement was likely to occur in a case or debate.