Classical Rhetoric

If you think that modern criticisms of the shrillness and vacuity of contemporary public discourse and the often misleading and just plain ugly nature of today’s political speeches are something new, then you may be interested to learn about the debates and controversies surrounding “rhetoric” from its very beginnings in the classical world of ancient Athens. This course surveys the development of rhetoric, beginning in Fifth-century B.C. Athens, moving through the Roman Republic and later the Empire, and concluding some nine hundred years later with the rise of Christianity. Major figures discussed include Plato and the Sophists, Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, the Gospel writers, St. Paul, and St. Augustine.