That Tyrant, Persuasion: How Rhetoric Shaped the Roman World

J. E. Lendon; J. E. Lendon

Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

Princeton University Press

Visit our Partner Page See all our books

Book

That Tyrant, Persuasion

How Rhetoric Shaped the Roman World

and

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2022

About this book

How rhetorical training influenced deeds as well as words in the Roman Empire

The assassins of Julius Caesar cried out that they had killed a tyrant, and days later their colleagues in the Senate proposed rewards for this act of tyrannicide. The killers and their supporters spoke as if they were following a well-known script. They were. Their education was chiefly in rhetoric and as boys they would all have heard and given speeches on a ubiquitous set of themes—including one asserting that “he who kills a tyrant shall receive a reward from the city.” In That Tyrant, Persuasion, J. E. Lendon explores how rhetorical education in the Roman world influenced not only the words of literature but also momentous deeds: the killing of Julius Caesar, what civic buildings and monuments were built, what laws were made, and, ultimately, how the empire itself should be run.

Presenting a new account of Roman rhetorical education and its surprising practical consequences, That Tyrant, Persuasion shows how rhetoric created a grandiose imaginary world for the Roman ruling elite—and how they struggled to force the real world to conform to it. Without rhetorical education, the Roman world would have been unimaginably different.

Author / Editor information

J. E. Lendon is Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Song of Wrath: The Peloponnesian War Begins; Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity; and Empire of Honour: The Art of Government in the Roman World.

Reviews

"A scholarly, balanced, and stimulating study."---R. T. Ingoglia, Choice --- "Witty and frank."---Christopher Farnese, New England Classical Review --- "A delightful and stimulating book. . . . A crisp and propulsive read."---Catherine Steel, Sehepunkte --- "That Tyrant, Persuasion. . . breaks new ground by tracing the influence of rhetoric on public life. . . . drawing on vast erudition, Lendon writes beautifully. He deserves to be widely read."---Brian Vickers, Times Literary Supplement --- "A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year"

Topics

Publicly Available

Frontmatter
i

Download PDF
Publicly Available

Contents
ix

Download PDF
Publicly Available

Preface
xi

Download PDF
Publicly Available

Acknowledgments
xvii

Download PDF
Section I The Strange World of Education in the Roman Empire
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

1 Education in the Roman Empire
3

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

2 The Social and Historical Significance of Rhetorical Education
14

Download PDF
Section II Killing Julius Caesar as the Tyrant of Rhetoric
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

3 The Carrion Men
29

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

4 Puzzles about the Conspiracy
37

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

5 Who Was Thinking Rhetorically?
51

Download PDF
Section III Rhetoric’s Curious Children: Building in the Cities of the Roman Empire
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

6 Monumental Nymphaea
67

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

7 City Walls, Colonnaded Streets, and the Rhetorical Calculus of Civic Merit
88

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

Section IV Lizarding, and Other Adventures in Declamation and Roman Law
107

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

8 Rhetoric and Roman Law
111

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

9 The Attractions of Declamatory Law
119

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

10 Legal Puzzles, Familiar Laws, and Laws of Rhetoric Rejected by Roman Law
132

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

Conclusion rhetoric, maker of worlds
148

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

Notes
157

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

Abbreviations of some modern works
229

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

Works cited
231

Download PDF
Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed

Index
287

Download PDF

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

February 7, 2022

eBook ISBN:

9780691221021

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691221021

eBook ISBN: 9780691221021

Keywords for this book

Declamation; Rhetoric; Roman Law; Niccolò Machiavelli; Machiavellianism; Pathogen; Allegory; Libanius; Areopagitica; Quintilian; Domitian; De facto; Suetonius; Praetor; Puritans; Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger; Valentinian (play); Superiority (short story); Patrician (ancient Rome); Republicanism; Mixed government; Sexuality in ancient Rome; Ulpian; Poetry; Diocletian; Tyrant; Harmodius and Aristogeiton (sculpture); Quentin Skinner; Narcissism; Parody; The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates; Polyaenus; De Inventione; Seneca the Younger; Declaration of Sports; Oliver Cromwell; Impossibility; 30s BC; Essay; Judicial activism; Atticism; Volumnia; Catiline; Cesare Lombroso; The Faerie Queene; Ancient Rome; Imperial cult (ancient Rome); Claudian; Commodus; Ammianus Marcellinus; Of Education; Classical republicanism; Pilgrimage of Grace; Right of conquest; Disenchantment; Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir); Egypt (Roman province); Etymology; Engagers; Rhetorica ad Herennium; Proconsul; Roman Empire; Aulus Gellius; Kenneth Burke; Engagement controversy; Late Antiquity; Hubris; Res publica; Pamphylia; The Machiavellian Moment

Audience(s) for this book

For a non-specialist adult audience

Princeton University Press

That Tyrant, Persuasion

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 Education in the Roman Empire

2 The Social and Historical Significance of Rhetorical Education

3 The Carrion Men

4 Puzzles about the Conspiracy

5 Who Was Thinking Rhetorically?

6 Monumental Nymphaea

7 City Walls, Colonnaded Streets, and the Rhetorical Calculus of Civic Merit

Section IV Lizarding, and Other Adventures in Declamation and Roman Law

8 Rhetoric and Roman Law

9 The Attractions of Declamatory Law

10 Legal Puzzles, Familiar Laws, and Laws of Rhetoric Rejected by Roman Law

Conclusion rhetoric, maker of worlds

Notes

Abbreviations of some modern works

Works cited

Index

Bibliographic data