

RHETORICIANS AND GRAMMARIANS. 



r.illmion of Klins Putsch (Ilanan, 1605. 4 to.) Ves- 

 ii .UK! Adrian confirmed to the grammarians 

 Uir priMiciie of exemption from civil services aim 

 liuniriis. Private citizens also took an interest in 

 ih- > -luxil-. ami supported ilit-in at their own ex- 

 pense. As, in the earliest times, instruction in 

 gnunnuir and IIIIIMC wa< given hy the same person 

 tlie ancient .rammarians also gave lessons in rhe- 

 toric ; ami many are distinguished as authors in 

 b tli departments. Even after the sciences had be- 

 come distinct, the grammarians still continued to 

 sunn- of tlie elementary branches of rhetoric, 

 itnd, in earlier times, orators passed directly from 

 the school ui' a t;i-ammariaii to take part in judicial 

 proceedings. 



2d. Instructors in eloquence were called rhetori- 

 cians among the Greeks ; and they also bore the 

 same name, or that of professors (professores), among 

 the early Romans. The invention of rhetoric is 

 l>ed by the ^Egyptians and poets to Thoth, 

 Hermes, or .Mercury, as, in ancient times, the men- 

 tal powers and operations, in general were looked 

 upon as something divine. Pittheus, the uncle of 

 'I heseus, is said to have first taught this art at 

 Trcezene, in the temple of the Muses, and to have 

 ((imposed a treatise upon it ; but this, at so early a 

 time, is incredible. Some consider Empedocles 

 (B. C. 444) as the inventor of rhetoric, of which he 

 may have laid the first foundation ; others, Corax 

 and Tisias of Sicily, who first reduced the rules of 

 rhetoric to writing, when, in consequence of a re- 

 volution there, many disputes arose concerning pro- 

 perty, and the want of a style of speaking suitable 

 for courts of justice was much felt. Some ascribe 

 the invention of rhetoric to Gorgias of Leoritium, 

 in Sicily, a pupil of Empedocles, as he was the first 

 who made use of the artificial figures and forms of 

 s| eech. Others have recognised Aristotle as tiie 

 inventor of rhetoric, who, in tact, first gave it a 

 scientific form. We find two sects of rhetoricians 

 mentioned, the Apollodorians and Theodorians, so 

 called from Apollodorus of Pergamus, who was the 

 teacher of the emperor Augustus at Apollonia, and 

 from Theodorus, to whose lessons the emperor 

 Til)erius is said to have attended at Rhodes. The 

 object of Grecian rhetoric was to represent every 

 thing so as to give it the appearance of plausibility 

 and truth. Before Aristotle, the sophists, the suc- 

 cessors of Zeno, the Eleatic, in dialectics, were 

 teachers of eloquence -. arrogant, vain, avaricious, 

 and selfish, they endeavoured to win admiration by 

 their dexterity in speaking on all questions, even 

 without preparation, and to gain influence by the 

 arts of persuasion, at a time when wealth, luxury, 

 licentiousness, and the splendour of political elo- 

 quence, which (particularly in Athens, where it 

 was favoured by democratic institutions, and had 

 arrived at its full maturity) invited to such a study 

 (in the 84th Olympiad, or B. C. 440.) As art na- 

 turally precedes science, the practice of eloquence 

 is of earlier origin than tlie rules of rhetoric. The 

 rhetoricians drew their rules and examples from the 

 master-works of the orators, whose name (pnropti) 

 was afterwards applied to them. But this mode of 

 proceeding was changed about the time ef the 

 Ptolemies, when two ingenious and learned critics, 

 Aristophanes and Aristarchus, taught in Alexandria. 

 'J hey selected ten Attic orators (whose lives are 

 given in a work ascribed to Plutarch) as models of 

 imitation, whose works they analyzed, and from 

 them derived their principles. But while the art 

 of oratory was older than the science of rhetoric, 

 the latter long survived the former, continuing its 

 instructions even to tlie time of Theodosius the 

 Great. Eloquence flourished at Athens only 150 



years, and perished, with every thing noble and 

 gnat, on the overthrow of liberty, under whose 

 patronage it had flourished, and whom it in turn 

 defended. It was carried to Asia Minor, Rhodes, 

 where ^Eschines introduced it at the time of his 

 banishment, and other islands, but, in these wan 

 derings, lost its original charms, and was corrupted 

 by foreign manners. Thus arose the distinction of 

 the Attic, Asiatic and Rhodian orators. A sparing 

 use of ornament, combined with a judicious abstin- 

 ence from striking contrasts, characterized the Attic 

 style. The Asiatic eloquence indulged in a greater 

 fulness of expression, and a free use of rhetorical 

 ornaments. The Asiatic orators, particularly those 

 of Lycia and Caria, were addicted to a sort of rhyth- 

 mical close of their sentences. The Rhodian elo- 

 quence is said to have preserved a medium between 

 these two. Eloquence was finally transplanted to 

 Rome by Greek teachers, where it shone with a new 

 splendour ; and Cicero appeared as the greatest 

 public orator of his country. But here, also, after 

 arriving at the highest perfection, it began gradually 

 to decline ; for, when freedom of speech was re- 

 strained, public eloquence ceased to be esteemed. 

 The old sophists certainly did an important service 

 by the establishment of schools of oratory : at one 

 time, they were the only public teachers of rhetoric, 

 and they encouraged the youth to aim at the glory 

 of eloquence, both by instruction and practice, and 

 by their own example, as declaimers (declamatores\ 

 The sophists were distinguished by a purple gown, 

 which was a sort of official dress. At Athens, no 

 one, and particularly no foreigner, was allowed to 

 assume this dress without the consent of the frater- 

 nity of the sophists, and without having been ad- 

 mitted into the order : the Roman emperors also 

 prohibited those who were not regularly qualified 

 from teaching declamation. Besides other secret 

 usages in the Greek ceremony of admission, the 

 candidates were led to a public bath. After the 

 bath, the person received the mantle, by the 

 authority of the president of the department of elo- 

 quence, to whom he paid a large fee for this per- 

 mission. With the mantle, the initiated person re- 

 ceived the dignity and name of a sophist. They 

 who in this manner had obtained the rank of a rhe- 

 torician, spent their time in teaching oratory, and 

 engaged in various rhetorical exercises with their 

 scholars. The principal design of rhetorical instruc- 

 tion was to prepare the scholars for conducting legal 

 processes, in which every thing was transacted 

 orally. Those who, in the rhetorical schools, prac- 

 tised themselves in speaking upon supposed cases, 

 and their pupils, were called scholastics ; but this 

 name was finally brought into contempt. The rhe- 

 torical instruction of the sophists consisted chiefly 

 n arts of deception, in the means of blinding one's 

 adversary, and ensnaring him by sophistical subtle- 

 ties and quibbles. They required a large fee, which 

 was paid beforehand. In later times, the Grecian 

 and Latin rhetoricians were paid by the Roman em- 

 perors (first under Vespasian). The rhetoricians 

 also wrote speeches for others. Antiphon was 

 the first who composed forensic speeches for 

 ;he use of others. With an oration of Lysias, 

 [phicrates very often gained the advantage over 

 lis adversary. Anytus, by a speech prepared 

 "or him by the sophist Polycrates, obtained the con- 

 demnation of Socrates, who disdained to use one 

 written for him by Lysias. Dinarchus became rich 

 jy composing orations for others. The prices paid 

 br them were high, and many writers obtained so 

 much celebrity as to be constantly occupied in this 

 way. At length this traffic fell into merited con- 

 tempt, and many great men avoided leaving writ- 



