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<\/a><\/p>\nDionysius of Halicarnassus (i.e. Bodrum) arrived in Rome in A.D. 30 sick and tired of Asiatic rhetoric as propagated by his fellow orators in the province of Asia.\u00a0 Unlike some Greek Dionysius saw in Romans a more appropriate and sober\u00a0 and disciplined style of rhetoric. Dionysius is what one could call an armchair rhetorician by which I mean a person who did not himself declaim but taught many Romans to do so, and he wrote treatises about the art of persuasion.\u00a0 At the same time, Dionysius was not a one trick pony, he was also an historian. \u201cThe two aspects of Dionysius\u2019 literary activity were complementary, since he regarded his historical work as an exemplification of his rhetorical theory.\u201d (Bowersock, p. 84 in the Cambridge History of Classical Literature Vol. I Part 4).\u00a0 Dionysius gave himself to a detailed study of both the Greek orators and the Greek historians.\u00a0 In Dionysius\u2019s view the ancient sober rhetoric of Aristotle and others had been revived by the Romans, and the new Rhetoric of the Sophists should be ignored and allowed to pass into obscurity.\u00a0 He thanks the Romans for helping to make this happen.\u00a0 He says in his Of Ancient Oration 2-3: \u201cThe ancient sober rhetoric has been restored to her former rightful place of honor, while the brainless new rhetoric has been restrained from. enjoying a fame which it does not deserve and from living in luxury on the fruits of another\u2019s labors. And this is perhaps not the only reason for praising the present age and the men who guide its culture\u2026.I think that the cause and origin of this great revolution has been the conquest of the world by Rome\u2026And since this great revolution has taken place in so short a time, I should not be surprised if that craze for a silly style of oratory fails to survive another single generation.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em> This deserves a wow. Rome\u2019s wars saved the world from Asiatic rhetoric!\u00a0 \u00a0Of course he was wrong, not least because as the Empire and dictatorial rule rose in power, flattery and flamboyance, especially in praise of rulers was hardly going to disappear.\u00a0 To the contrary, it only ramped up.\u00a0 \u00a0Safe rhetoric gave increasing attention to style, to beauty in discourse, with the purpose of the rhetoric to please the audience, rather than mainly to persuade.\u00a0 \u00a0It is not surprising that in this period manuals on style became to crop up, like the anonymous volume, \u2018On the Sublime\u2019<\/em> or Demetrius\u2019 On Style<\/em>.<\/p>\nAll along, one of the main concerns of Greek rhetoric was \u2018propriety\u2019.\u00a0 One had to choose a proper subject, one needed to use proper arguments, one need to form proper sentences etc. and this rhetorical concern was applied to the writing of history as well.\u00a0 For example, polymath Plutarch a reader and writer on a vast range of subjects censures Thucydides for choose a poor, nay improper subject for his history.\u00a0 The great rhetorician of the era, Dionysius of Halicarnassus is even more critical of Thucydides for the same reasons.\u00a0 \u00a0Plutarch also has a rhetorical approach to bioi\u00a0<\/em> that is biographies.\u00a0 The focus is on revealing the character of the person in question, and more particularly things that reveal his virtues or vices.\u00a0 In other words, the focus is not on historic events, but on whatever material reveals whether the person was a scoundrel or a moral athlete.\u00a0 Even the slightest turn of phrase or jest could better reveal the character (not just the personality but the moral character) of a person, and that is what the biographer should focus on.\u00a0 G.W Bowersock in\u00a0The Hellenistic Period and the Empire,\u00a0<\/em>helpfully points out, when on rare occasion, Plutarch chose a bad Greek to write about (say Demetrius) he would pick a bad Roman (e.g. Antony) to pair him with, because his goal was not entertainment or amusement but \u201cto illuminate morality by its opposite, and\u2026to emphasize that various features of mankind are not confined to one nation\u201d (p. 108).\u00a0 \u00a0But where was rhetoric headed as the Empire kept expanding, and autocracy kept expanding with it?\u00a0 \u00a0In our next post we will say more.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dionysius of Halicarnassus (i.e. Bodrum) arrived in Rome in A.D. 30 sick and tired of Asiatic rhetoric as propagated by his fellow orators in the province of Asia.\u00a0 Unlike some Greek Dionysius saw in Romans a more appropriate and sober\u00a0 and disciplined style of rhetoric. Dionysius is what one could call an armchair rhetorician by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Rhetorical Resources-- Part Five<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dionysius of Halicarnassus (i.e. Bodrum) arrived in Rome in A.D. 30 sick and tired of Asiatic rhetoric as propagated by his fellow orators in the province\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rhetorical Resources-- Part Five\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dionysius of Halicarnassus (i.e. Bodrum) arrived in Rome in A.D. 30 sick and tired of Asiatic rhetoric as propagated by his fellow orators in the province\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/02\/19\/rhetorical-resources-part-five\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-19T06:47:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta 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