38o Harry M. Hubbell, Ph.D., 



a source. At some time, however, the principle has been illus- 

 trated by the speech of Philo the architect on the arsenal at 

 Athens. W'e know from several sources that this was erected 

 during the administration of Lycurgus and that the speech 

 referred to was in the matter of accounting for the work. Philo- 

 demus seizes this instance of a man apparently without rhetorical 

 training who was capable of making a creditable speech on his 

 special line of work, and uses it to back his claim that rhetorical 

 training is not necessary for efifective speaking.^- Philodemus 

 is quoting from an author whom he refers to as oLtos avrds, 

 who had introduced into his work this speech of Philo. Who 

 this was we are not told, but as he states in another passage 

 (I, 346, Col. XLVIII, i) that Demetrius of Phalerum discussed 

 a Philo in his treatise on rhetoric, it may be that he was the first 

 to use Philo as an illustration. The turn which Philodemus 

 gives to the argument must, however, be due to some philosopher 

 unfriendly to rhetoric, and it can hardly be original with Philo- 

 demus, because the use of Philo the architect as an argument 

 against the necessity of a knowledge of rhetoric was known to 

 Cicero. ^^ Now it is hardly to be maintained that Cicero was 

 answering Philodemus ; the case is rather that Philo had become 

 a stock illustration to use when attacking the claims of rhetoric. 

 The definition of rhetoric as the power of persuasion which 

 Plato ascribes to Gorgias contained an ambiguity which gave 

 an opportunity for reply. Other things, the opponents said, 

 persuade, — wealth, beauty, reputation. Hence rhetoric cannot 

 be an art, for an art has an exclusive field (v. Philodemus I, 

 19, 12 = Suppl. II, 7). Phryne whose beauty did more to win 

 her case than the pleading of Hyperides, became a stock illustra- 

 tion for this phase of the controversy. She is cited by Philo- 

 demus, Sextus and Quintilian,^* who give the natural and normal 



^' I, 192, 15. Oil ixrtv dXXd toi)s pr)Topas el Karopdovv iv rois prjTopiKoh eXeytv, fj 

 trpbs rbv diaXeKTiKOv, eXeytv, of) rhv tXeyxo" troiov^iu^ 6 5' €(pr] irpoffderja^rOai Trjs 

 prjTopiKfi^, ii TTpbs Tovs dWovs TreTraideiifx^vovi, fidWov 5^ nal rex •'"Taj 6\uis, ot rd 

 Toiavra Kal irXeiip rovruiv iv tois i5ioii <j>vXa.TTe<T0ai /j.avddvova'iv, ws Kal ^IXwva t6v 

 apx^T^KTOva irepl rrjs ffKevodi^Krjs ovtos avrbs fia-qyayev Srj/xTjyopovvTa. 



^^ De Orat. I, 14, 62; Neque enim si Philonem ilium architectum, qui 

 Atheniensibus armamentarium fecit constat perdiserte populo rationem 

 operis sui reddidisse, existimandum est architecti potius artificio disertum 

 quam oratoris fuisse. 



" Philod. I, 20, 4; Quint. II, 15, 6-9; Sextus, 4. 



