T]ic R/ictorica of PJulodemus. 357 



men from the fact that some of their pupils are able to plead 

 causes and conduct themselves properly before the assembly, in 

 the same way that one could prove that the art of grammar pro- 

 duces people able to read and write from the fact that those who 

 have attended the school can do this. Their argument works H, 260, col. 

 against them rather than for them, since everybody who studies 

 the art of grammar learns to read and write, and no one learns 

 without studying. But many who stvidy rhetoric cannot speak 

 in public, in fact this is true of the majority, and many who have 

 not studied can speak — they outnumber those who have studied. 

 Therefore we must agree that those who have studied and are 

 statesmen, are such not by virtue of acquiring the faculty which 

 the sophist professes to impart, but from other reasons. Such 

 would be remarkable natural ability for acquiring the rhetorical 

 faculty, and ardor in practicing in politics when once they have 

 shown themselves desirous of rhetorical instruction, and have II, 262, col. 

 filled themselves with political speeches which involve a con- VllJa. 

 siderable degree of imitation, and, last of all, a spirit of meddling, 

 which is the source of most political experience. There are 

 many other causes, consequently their statement is unsound. 

 And so, although there is such a connection between these 

 studies, nevertheless rhetors skilled in swaying the passions are 

 not produced by these studies any more than by such studies as 

 grammar and philosophy. It thus appears vain to claim that 

 these studies produce the political faculty; just because some 

 statesmen come from these schools one cannot claim that rhetoric 

 produces them. So much for that. j^a 



When they ask, who is a statesman if we cannot call the 

 rhetors statesmen, it is easy to answer, laymen, but they are not 

 the only ones or the majority, but the rhetors are the statesmen, 

 however these are not the panegyrical rhetors, but those who en- 

 gage in real contests ; also many are statesmen who are not 

 rhetors but possess the political faculty. But it is foolish and 

 senseless to inc|uire what this faculty is, to say that it is the 

 faculty which produces statesmen, and then to add that rhetoric 

 is the art of politics, and produces statesmen. 



^^'hen they argue as follows : "It is the task of the statesman II. 265, 

 to govern the state, to advise, to have experience in embassies, 

 constitutions, decrees, etc., and the rhetor understands all this," 

 grant that this can be proven, and let us allow for the sake of 



