Bart Huelsenbeck – författare

This volume shifts perspective to the everyday aspects of ancient rhetoric—its teaching, exercises, and daily life—and concentrates on persons less visible in narratives of rhetoric’s history: teachers, slaves and freedmen, speech performers, political dissidents, mavericks, and dropouts.

Standard historical accounts typically identify rhetoric with events and figures of great moment, great men, prominent status, and narrowly defined uses of the art. The more quotidian practices of rhetoric and those persons who carried the discipline, especially as teachers, have received less attention, then and now. This book expands the history of Roman rhetoric by utilizing the less-studied material while, at the same time, exploring greater issues in the conceptualization and history of rhetoric. Among these: rhetoric as a discipline not only of verbal facility, but of invention and knowledge; the union of content and form; the use of models and types; the bodily dimensions of speaking and thinking; the morality of speech; the important roles of approximation and probability in knowing; and the plurality of truths. The opening chapter provides an overview of the history of Roman rhetoric. Three main persons are, then, brought into the spotlight (Plotius Gallus, Cassius Severus, Albucius Silus), while many others receive attention throughout the book.

Profiles in Roman Rhetoric enriches our understanding of intellectual life in Rome, and is suitable for students and scholars interested in rhetoric, both ancient and modern; classics; education; historical methodology; and biography.

This volume shifts perspective to the everyday aspects of ancient rhetoric—its teaching, exercises, and daily life—and concentrates on persons less visible in narratives of rhetoric’s history: teachers, slaves and freedmen, speech performers, political dissidents, mavericks, and dropouts.

Standard historical accounts typically identify rhetoric with events and figures of great moment, great men, prominent status, and narrowly defined uses of the art. The more quotidian practices of rhetoric and those persons who carried the discipline, especially as teachers, have received less attention, then and now. This book expands the history of Roman rhetoric by utilizing the less-studied material while, at the same time, exploring greater issues in the conceptualization and history of rhetoric. Among these: rhetoric as a discipline not only of verbal facility, but of invention and knowledge; the union of content and form; the use of models and types; the bodily dimensions of speaking and thinking; the morality of speech; the important roles of approximation and probability in knowing; and the plurality of truths. The opening chapter provides an overview of the history of Roman rhetoric. Three main persons are, then, brought into the spotlight (Plotius Gallus, Cassius Severus, Albucius Silus), while many others receive attention throughout the book.

Profiles in Roman Rhetoric enriches our understanding of intellectual life in Rome, and is suitable for students and scholars interested in rhetoric, both ancient and modern; classics; education; historical methodology; and biography.

Ancient declamation—the practice of delivering speeches on the basis of fictitious scenarios—defies easy categorization. It stands at the crossroads of several modern disciplines. It is only within the past few decades that the full complexity of declamation, and the promise inherent in its study, have come to be recognized. This volume, which contains thirteen essays from an international team of scholars, engages with the multidisciplinary nature of declamation, focusing in particular on the various interactions in declamation between rhetoric, literature, law, and ethics.

Contributions pursue a range of topics, but also complement each other. Separate essays by Brescia, Lentano, and Lupi explore social roles—their tensions and expectations—as defined through declamation. With similar emphasis on historical circumstances, Quiroga Puertas and Tomassi consider the adaptation of rhetorical material to frame contemporary realities. Schwartz draws attention to the sometimes hazy borderline between declamation and the courtroom. The relationship between laws and declamation, a topic of abiding importance, is examined in studies by Berti, Breij, and Johansson. Also with an eye to the complex interaction between laws and declamation, Pasetti offers a narratological analysis of cases of poisoning. Citti discovers the concept of natural law represented in declamatory material. While looking at a case of extreme cruelty, Huelsenbeck evaluates the nature of declamatory language, emphasizing its use as an integral instrument of performance events. Zinsmaier looks at discourse on the topic of torture in rhetorical and legal contexts.