17° 



Harry M. Hubhell, Ph.D., 



An argument was based on the jelatively late appearance of 

 formal treatises on rhetoric. There were orators, they said, 

 before Corax and Tisias, and better orators, too. The implica- 

 tion, carried out somewhat fully by Quintilian, is that if there 

 were orators without the so-called "artistic" training, men might 

 still become orators without studying with a rhetorician, or 

 reading any of the manuals of rhetoric. If a speech can be 

 produced without the "art," then the pretensions of the "art" 

 are false, there is no art. This appears in Quintilian and Philo- 

 demus, and is answered by both in the same way. I give the 

 passages in parallel columns. 



Phil. I, 27, 6 



TTpo TO? KaTa/3\rjdy]vaL ras re^^vas 

 /3e\T€L0v ipyjTopevov, i<ji' ots Se crvv- 

 ecTTrjcrav ^elpov. 



TovTw fjxv yap rw rpoTTw Kat rrjv 



TTOLrjTlKTjV Kttt TlfJV laTpLKyjV Kai 



TToAAas aXAas ovk ecvat re^i/as 

 Xeyw/xev. 



Quint. II, 17, 7 



Deinde adiciunt illas verborum 

 cavillationes, nihil quod ex 

 arte fiat, ante artem fuisse ; 

 atqui dixisse homines pro se et 

 in alios semper ; doctores artis 

 sero et circa Tisian et Coraca 

 primum repertos . . . aut 

 tollatur medicina . . . nee 

 fabrica sit ars . . . nee 

 musica. 



Such must have been the original kernel of the argument, and 

 the regular reply of the rhetoricians. Philodemus, however, 

 almost obscures the reply by interpolating his favorite argument 

 that rhetoric is the product of natural ability pliis experience, 

 hence one might expect the ancients to be better than the moderns. 

 For Philodemus is an enthusiastic laudator tcmporis acti. 



An argument of similar nature is drawn from the fact that 

 there have been successful orators who have had no rhetorical 

 training. This occurs in Philodemus, Quintilian, Sextus. and 

 Cicero, with just enough suggestion as to its ultimate source 

 to make a puzzling problem. I give in parallel columns the 

 passages from Philodemus, Quintilian, and Sextus, reserving 

 Cicero for a separate discussion. 



