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A Brief Timeline of Classical Rhetoric – From Corax to Quintilian

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A Brief Timeline of Classical Rhetoric – From Corax to Quintilian

 

Time

Who

Place

Contribution

Vital Works

5th Cent. BC

Corax and Tisias[1]

 

Orator

Greek

(Sicily)

Founder of Greek Rhetoric (Corax) and his pupil (Tisias) devised an art of court defense for ordinary people to follow to defend land in the harrowing times under the tyrant Thrasybulus at Syracuse. (Prose, Narration, Argument, Refutation, Summary)

 

510 – 440

BC

Parmenides[2]

Philosopher, Priest

Greek (Elea)

Points of view on being and non-being (impossible and thus meaningless) may have paved for the way for the opposing skepticism and cynicism that undergirds later Sophistic rhetoric.

On Nature, The way of Truth, The Way of Opinion, Proem (parts of the same poem)[3]

490 – 420 BC

Protagoras,[4] Philosopher, Teacher

Greek

Protagoras is famously known for his ability (claim) to make the weaker case the stronger in any dispute. He conducted public debates and was the first to charge a fee for his services/training.

 

487-376

BC

Gorgias[5]

Philosopher

Greek

(Sicily)

Gorgias was a Sophist[6] who invited random questions and gave refined impromptu replies.  He used paradoxes to make the absurd seem logical. Gorgias was known for embracing nonexistence, either as a worldview or common topic for oration. If his arguments about existence are accepted, a rhetor is able to talk endlessly about anything – there are no limits when nothing exists and all is incomprehensible and incommunicable.

Enconmium, Defense, On Being or Nature

480 – 411 BC

Antiphon[7]

Greek (Athens)

The Tetrologies are a complete argument – with a first presentation and a rebuttal from each of two sides – all in the same speech. Antiphon marks a transitory period between practical oration and art or philosophical oration.

Four Tetrologies[8]

460 – 395 BC

Thucydides[9]

Historian

Greek (Athens)

An advocate of practical rhetoric (what we might call instrumental rhetoric), Thucydides suggested a formulaic presentation of stock ideas and sections – to be ready for usage should the need arise.

Pericles’ Funeral Oration (in History of the Peloponnesian War)[10]

4th Cent. BC

Alcidamas[11]

Greek

(Elea)

Alcidamas was one of many Sophists to despise writing at the turning point from oral to written traditions, and gave a laundry list of support for extemporaneous speaking as opposed to writing, paired with complaints about the damage writing as a (bad) habit does to oratory skill.

On Sophists or Concerning Those Who Write Speeches,[12] Odysseus

436-338

BC

Isocrates

Essayist, Pundit, Teacher

Greek

(Attica)

Isocrates taught rhetoric as a skill, although rarely practiced himself (weak voice). He criticized the Sophists for wasting oratory (and teaching oratory) about “trivial” matters, which were only valid as topics for mental gymnastics – not as a profession. 

Encomium of Helen, Antidosis, Against the Sophists[13]

469-399

BC

Socrates[14]

Philosopher

Greek

(Athens)

Socrates was concerned primarily with the health of the soul, and specifically with philosophy as a way of life (as opposed to oratory, which he called “flattery”). He is famous for the dialectical method that he utilizes in Plato’s Gorgias – a process of reaching the truth/understanding by making fine distinctions about definitions in questioning. 

 

427-347

BC

Plato[15]

Philosopher

Greek

(Athens)

All of reality is divided between Truths/physical universe, in which the Truth cannot be known. Plato gives us much of what we have on Socrates in his written dialogues. His choices to give us what we have suggest that Plato favored dialectic, had a dim view of Sophistic bloviation,[16] and valued philosophy.  

Phaedrus,[17] Gorgias,[18] Republic,[19] Protagoras, Five Dialogues (incl. Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo)[20]

400

BC

Anonymous Author

 

Although we are not sure who wrote it,[21] the Dissoi Logoi importantly introduced contrasting arguments in a single oration as a method of demonstrating skill – it also is notable for its extreme relativism: good and bad (seemly/shameful; just/unjust) are relative to context, point of view, time, place, etc).

Dissoi Logoi

400-320

BC

Aristotle[22]

Philosopher, Teacher

Greek

(Athens)

Analyzed what could be known by the senses (rather than Truth) and compiled long treatises on any topic he could think of – which was quite a few.

Rhetoric,[23] Politics, Poetics, Nicomachean Ethics

106-

43

BC

Marcus Tullius Cicero[24]

Philosopher

Roman 

(Rome)

Distills Aristotle and others into five canons of rhetoric (inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, actio) and three kinds of speech (epideictic, deliberative, judicial)

De Oratore, Inventione, Rhetorica ad Herenium, On Republic, On the Laws, and various political speeches[25]

35-

100

AD

Marcus Fabius Quintilian[26]

Philosopher

Roman  (Rome) from Hispania

Quintilian provides us with the first codified “textbook” on the theory and practice of rhetoric – divided into theoretical, educational, and practical constructs.

Institutio Oratoria

(12 volumes)[27]

 

Others who may be added later: Xenophanes, Pythagoras, Zeno, Empedocles, Hericlitus,[28] Prodicus, Hippias

 

 

Notes



[1] For the story of Corax and Tisias’ famous court hearing, see: http://nightfly.googlepages.com/corax

[2] Parmenides at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/parmenides/

[3] The remaining fragments of Parmenides’ poem: http://www.gmu.edu/courses/phil/ancient/poem4.htm

[4] Protagoras at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/protagor/

[5] Gorgias at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/gorgias/

[6] Sophists and Sophistry have gotten a generally negative association over time. Contemporary scholars are examining this and some, like Jarratt, are finding new insight into the benefits of Sophist teachings and the art of Sophistic rhetoric. For a discussion of this, see: Susan C. Jarratt, Rereading the Sophists: Classical Rhetoric Refigured (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991).

[7] Antiphon at the Encyclopedia Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/28477/Antiphon

[8] First Tetralogy by Antiphon in Greek and English: http://classics.mit.edu/Antiphon/antiph.2.html  

[9] Thucydides at the Encyclopedia Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/594236/Thucydides

[10] The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides: http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.html

[11] Alcidamas at the Greek Text Online Library: http://www.greektexts.com/library/Alcidamas/index.html

[13] For Isocrates’ listed works and two dozen others see: http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Isocrates.html

[14] Socrates at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/

[15] Plato at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/plato/

[16] Plato took a very dim view of the Sophists but later academics have acknowledged that Plato’s rhetoric (and all rhetoric) is inescapably infused with Sophistic traditions – it is what it is because of the Sophists. For a description of this and an ethical/political stance on its impact, see: Richard Lee Enos, Greek Rhetoric before Aristotle (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 1993).

[17] Plato, Phaedrus, trans. Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1995).

[18] Plato, Gorgias, trans. Donald J.  Zeyl (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1987).

[19] Plato, Republic, trans. G.M.A. Grube (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1992).

[20] Plato, Five Dialogues, trans. G.M.A. Grube, 2 ed. (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2002).

[21] Some attribute Dissoi Logoi to Sextus Empiricus.

[22] Aristotle at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/aristotl/

[23] Aristotle, On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse, trans. George A. Kennedy (London: Oxford University Press, 1991).

[24] Cicero at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/cicero/

[25] Speeches against Verres, Catiline, Marcellus can be found in: Cicero, Political Speeches, trans. D.H. Berry (London: Oxford University Press, 2006).

[27] For full text online of all 12 volumes, see: http://honeyl.public.iastate.edu/quintilian/index.html

[28] Hericlitus at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/heraclit/

 

Created 9/21/09 - Steve Stuglin (Georgia State University)

 

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