The Rhetorica of Philodemus. 253 



heresy, and recognizing the views as peculiar to Zeno, assumed 

 that he was the author, and published a reply. This attack led 

 Philodemus to return to the subject of rhetoric with a reply to 

 his critic, and a restatement of his views now expanded to the 

 seven books On Rhetoric. Naturally, then, the two works cover 

 much of the same ground, and seem to have followed the same 

 general plan. The Hypomnematicon contained criticisms of the 

 arguments for and against rhetoric, such as we find at length 

 in the second book Ilepi prjTopiKrj^, and again in the seventh book. 

 From this section we have a considerable group of quotations 

 from Diogenes of Babylon who appears also in the seventh book. 

 We have also small fragments of the criticism of Nausiphanes 

 and the Peripatetics, which forms the bulk of our fragments 

 of the sixth book. There was also a discussion of the nature 

 of "art," parallel to that of book I. But most important of all 

 we have in col. XXXIX ff. a full statement of the contents of 

 the constructive part of the work with Philodemus' definition of 

 rhetoric.^'' 



The Ilepl pr}TopLKrj<: may be briefly outlined as follows : 



Book I General introduction. Nature of "art." 



Book II Is rhetoric an art? Criticism of arguments for and against. 

 Philodemus' view that sophistic i. e. epideixis is an art, 

 but all other varieties of rhetoric, as well as politics, are not. 



Book III The sophistical school does not produce statesmen ; in fact the 

 sophistical training is often harmful. 



Book IV Criticism in detail of the claims of rhetoric, apparently as 

 given in some manual. Philodemus denies the ability of 

 the sophistical schools to teach a beautiful style ; complains 

 of their faulty treatment of metaphors; denies the claim of 

 the sophists to universal knowledge, and their assumption of 

 moral superiority. 



Book V Detailed discussion of the disadvantages of rhetoric, with a 

 comparison of the wretched life of the rhetor with the 

 happy life of the philosopher. 



Book VI Attacks on philosophical schools which advocated the study 

 of rhetoric. The surviving fragments deal with Aristotle 

 and Nausiphanes. 



Book VII Criticism of the Stoic attitude toward rhetoric. Further criti- 

 cism of Aristotle. Comparison of rhetoric and philosophy. 



" In this paragraph we have followed in the main the conclusion stated 

 by Sudhaus in the note on p. 44 of his Supplementum. 



