1. IN the second book the subject of inquiry
was the nature and the end of rhetoric, and I proved
to the best of my ability that it was an art, that it
was useful, that it was a virtue and that its material
was all and every subject that might come up for
treatment. I shall now discuss its origin, its component parts, and the method to be adopted in handling and forming our conception of each. For most
authors of text-books have stopped short of this,
indeed Apollodorus confines himself solely to forensic
oratory.
[
2]
I know that those who asked me to write
this work were specially interested in that portion on
which I am now entering, and which, owing to the
necessity of examining a great diversity of opinions, at
once forms by far the most difficult section of this work,
and also, I fear, may be the least attractive to my
readers, since it necessitates a dry exposition of rules.
[
3]
In other portions of this work I have attempted to
introduce a certain amount of ornateness, not, I may
say, to advertise my style (if I had wished to do that, I
could have chosen a more fertile theme), but in order
that I might thus do something to lure our young
men to make themselves acquainted with those principles which I regarded as necessary to the study of
rhetoric: for I hoped that by giving them something
which was not unpleasant to read I might induce a
greater readiness to learn those rules which I feared
[p. 373]
might, by the dryness and aridity which must necessarily characterise their exposition, revolt their minds
and offend their ears which are nowadays grown
somewhat over-sensitive.
[
4]
Lucretilus has the same
object in mind when he states that he has set forth
his philosophical system in verse; for you will remember the well known simile which he uses
1:—
And as physicians when they seek to give
A draught of bitter wormwood to a child,
First smear along the edge that rims the cup
The liquid sweets of honey, golden-hued,
and the rest.
[
5]
But I fear that this book will have
too little honey and too much wormwood, and that
though the student may find it a healthy draught,
it will be far from agreeable. I am also haunted by
the further fear that it will be all the less attractive
from the fact that most of the precepts which it contains are not original, but derived from others, and
because it is likely to rouse the opposition of certain
persons who do not share my views. For there are
a large number of writers, who though they are all
moving toward the same goal, have constructed
different roads to it and each drawn their followers
into their own.
[
6]
The latter, however, approve of
the path on which they have been launched whatever its nature, and it is difficult to change the convictions implantted in boyhood, for the excellent reason
that everybody prefers to have learned rather than
to be in process of learning.
[
7]
But, as will appear in
the course of this book, there is an infinite diversity
of opinions among writers on [his subject, since some
have added their own discoveries to those portions
of the art which were still shapeless and unformed,
[p. 375]
and subsequently have altered even what was perfectly sound in order to establish a claim to
originality.
[
8]
The first writer after those recorded by the poets
who is said to have taken any steps in the direction
of rhetoric is Empedocles. But the earliest writers
of text-books are the Sicilians, Corax and Tisias,
who were followed by another from the same island,
namely Gorgias of Leontini, whom tradition asserts
to have been the pupil of Empedocles.
[
9]
He, thanks to
his length of days, for he lived to a hundred and nine,
flourished as the contemporary of many rhetoricians,
was consequently the rival of those whom I have
just mentioned, and lived on to survive Socrates.
[
10]
In the same period flourished Thrasymachus of
Chalcedon, Prodicus of Ceos, Protagoras of Abdera,
for whose instructions, which he afterwards published
in a text-book, Euathlus is said to have paid 10,000
2
denarii, Hippias of Elis and Alcidamas of Elaea whom
Plato
3 calls Palamedes.
[
11]
There was Antiphon also,
who was the first to write speeches and who also wrote
a text-book and is said to have spoken most eloquently in his own defence; Polycrates, who,
[
11]
as
have already said, wrote a speech against Socrates,
and Theodorus of Byzantium, who was one of those
called “word-artificers” by Plato.
4
[
12]
Of these Protagoras and Gorgias are said to have been the
first to treat commonplaces, Prodicus, Hippias,
Protagoras and Thrasymachus the first to handle
emotional themes. Cicero in the
Brutus5 states
that nothing in the ornate rhetorical style was
ever committed to writing before Pericles, and that
certain of his speeches are still extant. For my
part I have been unable to discover anything in
[p. 377]
the least worthy of his great reputation for eloquence,
6
and am consequently the less surprised that there
should be some who hold that he never committed
anything to writing, and that the writings circulating under his name are the works of others.
[
13]
These
rhetoricias had many successors, but the most
famous of (Gorgias' pupils was Isocrates, although
our authorities are not agreed as to who was his
teacher: I however accept the statement of Aristotle
on the subject.
[
14]
From this point the roads begin to
part. The pupils of Isocrates were eminent in every
branch of study, and when he was already advanced
in years (and he lived to the age of ninety-eight),
Aristotle began to teach the art of rhetoric in his
afternoon lectures,
7 in which he frequently quoted
the wel-known line from the
Philoctetes8 in the form
Isocrates still speaks. 'Twere shame should I
Sit silent.
Both Aristotle and Isocrates left text-books on
rhetoric, but that by Aristotle is the larger and contains more books. Theodectes, whose work I mentioned above,
[
15]
also lived about the same period: while
Theophrastus, the pupil of Aristotle, produced some
careful work on rhetoric. After him we may note
that the philosophers, more especially the leaders of
the Stoic and Peripatetic schools, surpassed even
the rhetoricians in the zeal which they devoted to
the subject.
[
16]
Hermagoras next carved out a path of
his own, which numbers have followed: of his rivals
Athenaeus seems to have approached him most
[p. 379]
nearly. Later still much work was done by Apollonius Molon, Areus, Caecilius and Dionysius of
Halicarnassus.
[
17]
But the rhetoricians who attracted
the most enthusiastic following were Apollodorus of
Pergamus, who was the instructor of Augustus Caesar
at Apollonia, and Theodorus of Gadara, who preferred
to be called Theodorus of Rhodes: it is said that
Tiberius Caesar during his retirement in that island
was a constant attendant at his lectures.
[
18]
These
rhetoricians taught different systems, and two schools
have arisen known as the Apollodoreans and the
Theodoreans, these names being modelled on the
fashion of nomenclature in vogue with certain schools
of philosophy. The doctrines of Apollodorus are
best learned from his pupils, among whom Cains
Valgius was the best interpreter of his master's views
in Latin, Atticus in Greek. The only text-book by
Apollodorus himself seems to be that addressed to
Matius, as his letter to Domitius does not acknowledge the other works attributed to him. The
writings of Theodorus were more numerous, and
there are some still living who have seen his pupil
Herinagoras.
[
19]
The first Roman to handle the subject was, to the
best of my belief, Marcus Cato, the famous censor,
while after him Marcus Antonius began a treatise on
rhetoric: I say “began,” because only this one work of
his survives, and that is incomplete. he was followed
by others of less note, whose names I will not omit to
mention, should occasion demand.
[
20]
But it was Cicero
who shed the greatest light not only on the practice
but on the theory of oratory; for he stands alone
among Romans as combining the gift of actual eloquence with that of teaching the art. With him for
9
[p. 381]
predecessor it would be more modest to be silent, but
for the fact that he himself describes his Rhetorica
10
as a youthful indiscreition, while in his later works on
oratory he deliberately omitted the discussion of
certain minor points, on which instruction is generally
desired.
[
21]
Cornificius wrote a good deal, Stertinius
something, and the elder Gallio a little on the same
subject. But Gallio's predecessors, Celsus and Laenas,
and in our own day Verginius, Pliny and Tutilius,
have treated rhetoric with greater accuracy. Even
to-day we have some distinguished writers on oratory
who, if they had dealt with the subject more comprehensively, would have saved me the trouble of
writing this book. But I will spare the names of the
living. The time will come when they will reap their
meed of praise; for their merits will endure to after
generations, while the calunmies of envy will perish
utterly.
[
22]
Still, although so many writers have preceded me,
I shall not shrink from expressing my own opinion on
certain points. I am not a superstitious adherent of
any school, and as this book will contain a collection
of the opinions of many different authurs, it was desirable to leave it to my readers to selcet what they
will. I shall be content if they praise me for my
industry, wherever there is no scope for originality.