Attic Style Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of meaning speech writing and language.

Attic style rhetoric. Attic would resurface again as the ideal suggesting a more ascetic brief and witty concise style. It is only the aim of the christian speaker to teach admonish lament that can tell him what sort of style to employ. The work of the attic orators inspired the later rhetorical movement of atticism an approach to speech composition in a simple rather than ornate style. The newer asiatic style exhibited more wordplay emotion and rhythm.

The asiatic style or asianism latin. Erich auerbach in mimesis 1946 sees in augustine s emphasis the invention of a new kind of decorum opposed to that of the classical theorists one oriented by its lofty rhetorical purpose rather than its low or common subject matter. 2715 north charles street baltimore maryland usa 21218 1 410 516 6989 muse press jhu edu 2020 project muse. Genus orationis asiaticum cicero brutus 325 refers to an ancient greek rhetorical tendency though not an organized school that arose in the third century bc which although of minimal relevance at the time briefly became an important point of reference in later debates about roman oratory.

The forensic and the grand styles. Roman rhetoricians such as cicero and quintilian used aristotelian concepts in their writings as would later commentators. Although we have essentially no examples of the true asiatic style the attic asiatic dichotomy in greek rhetoric was used to describe and assess latin orators. Cicero wrote a treatise on rhetoric.

Both styles influenced writers and speakers in rome and much later in britain. Produced by johns hopkins university press in collaboration with the sheridan libraries. Attic style in greek literature and art was replaced for a time by the more decorative and florid asiatic style. The orator should use the plain style to instruct the grand style to move the intermediate style to charm.

Attic style or atticism the style of oratory or prose writing associated with the speeches of the great attic i. He was said to be an asiatic writer by those who wanted to discredit him. Although the quote from quintilian above gives us three distinct styles most commentators have rolled them into two.