Abstract
In this chapter, we introduce the classical theories of rhetoric that are foundational for contemporary speechwriting. We outline some of the basic concepts in the ancient Greek theories on rhetoric, notably Aristotle’s’ On Rhetoric, the first treatise on rhetoric, and additions made by Roman scholars. We explain how a cultural climate in ancient Greece gave rise to professional speechwriting for others: logography. When politicians and officials had to address large crowds in state matters, they sought advice from intellectuals and educators who taught rhetoric and philosophy. We present some of these professionals, often referred to as ‘Sophists,’ who also wrote speeches for citizens who had to deliver a speech in court. In ancient Rome, where citizens were allowed to have advocates speak on their behalf in court, the most important kind of speechmaking beside the courts was the political speech.
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Notes
- 1.
John H. Timmis III, A Conspectus of Classical Rhetoric (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 1977), 38.
- 2.
Michael Gagarin, “Greek Oratory,” in Harvey Yunis (trans.), Demosthenes Speeches 18 and 19 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005), xii.
- 3.
Mogens Herman Hansen, “Indledning,” in Mogens Herman Hansen (trans.), Lysias Taler (København, Denmark: Museum Tusculanums forlag, 1980), 17.
- 4.
Gagarin, xiii.
- 5.
Aeschines (ca. 395–322), Andocides (ca. 440–ca. 390), Antiphon (ca. 480–411), Demosthenes (384–322), Dinarchus (ca. 360–ca. 290), Hyperides (389/8–322), Isaeus (ca. 415–ca. 340), Isocrates (436–338), Lycurgus (ca. 390–ca. 324), and Lysias (ca. 445–ca. 380). Gagarin, xiv–xvii.
- 6.
James Fredal, “Why Shouldn’t the Sophists Charge Fees,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 38, no. 2 (2008).
- 7.
Michael J. Edwards, “Antiphon and the Beginnings of Athenian Literary Oratory,” Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric 18, no. 3 (2000), 227–242, 231.
- 8.
Alchidamas, The Works and Fragments. Edited and translated by John (London: Bristol Classical Press, 2001), 10.
- 9.
Ibid., 11.
- 10.
Ibid., 34.
- 11.
Andersen, 2011, 244.
- 12.
Mogens Herman Hansen, “Reflections on the Number of Citizens Accommodated in the Assembly Place on the Pnyx,” in The Pnyx in the History of Athens . Papers and Monographs of the Finnish Institute at Athens, eds. Björn Forsén and Greg Stanton (Helsinki, 1996), 26.
- 13.
Heiner Knell, Athen im 4.Jahrhundert v.Chr. – eine Stadt verändert ihr Gesicht (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesslschaft, 2000), 56.
- 14.
Catherine Steel, Roman Oratory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 29–31.
- 15.
Steel, Roman Oratory, 29.
- 16.
Robert Morstein-Marx, Mass Oratory and Political Power in the Latte Roman Republic (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2008), 25. Cf. Steel, Roman Oratory, 27.
- 17.
William T. Avery, “Roman Ghost-Writers,” Classical Journal 54 (1959), 167.
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Kjeldsen, J.E., Kiewe, A., Lund, M., Barnholdt Hansen, J. (2019). The Beginning of Speechwriting. In: Speechwriting in Theory and Practice. Rhetoric, Politics and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03685-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03685-0_3
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