This rich volume stems from a 2015 conference at the University of Cyprus. Its major objective is to outline a framework that will deepen our appreciation of both the context-specific and trans-generic features and manifestations of ancient persuasion. The volume achieves its purpose by investigating a wider range of genres (oratory, historiography, poetry and epistolography) and means of persuasion (narrative, emotions, gender, style, performance) than previous scholarship has so far considered. Its 20 contributions, distributed across six thematic parts, cover a broad temporal spectrum that ranges from fifth-century Greece to Imperial Rome. Below Ioffer a brief overview of each section, with a focus on selected chapters concerning Greek literature in accordance with the interests of this journal.
To circumscribe the meaning of ‘persuasion’ is, of course, no small task. The introductory chapter 1 provides the volume’s understanding of the term and sets out its methodology. The authors define persuasion as ‘all the techniques, mechanisms and symbols, both cognitive and emotional, deployed in oral or written discourse, used to influence, voluntarily or not, the attitudes, behaviours and beliefs of target audiences’ (3). They ground this definition in both ancient and modern approaches to persuasion by fruitfully integrating Aristotle’s Rhetoric with contemporary notions of ‘group identity’, ‘imagined community’ and ‘emotional community’ (4–5). Aconnecting thread throughout the volume is Aristotle’s classification of means of persuasion into logos, ēthos and pathos, which serves as the theoretical foundation of most chapters.
After a detailed overview of each contribution (8–16), the volume moves to part 1, on ‘Dramatic debates in poetry’, which features two chapters on Seneca’s Agamemnon (Andreas N. Michalopoulos) and Ovid and Quintus of Smyrna’s reworking of the Hoplōn krisis (Sophia Papaioannou).
Part 2 is made up of five chapters, which examine persuasive strategies and their outcomes in narratives from Attic forensic speeches (Eleni Volonaki), Thucydides (Antonis Tsakmakis and Maria Kythreotou), Livy (Georgios Vassiliades) and Virgil’s Aeneid (Michael Paschalis). This type of interdisciplinary dialogue is particularly valuable for assessing the outcome of persuasion, which is difficult to judge in speeches from Classical Athens as we often do not know whether they were successful. Chapters 5 and 6, on unpersuasive communication in Thucydides, are especially promising. Antonis Tsakmakis proposes that the failure of Teutiaplus’ speech (3.30) should be located within the larger Mytilenean narrative. Maria Kythreotou argues that Thucydides seemingly undermines Brasidas’ speech (4.85–87) in an attempt to call his readers’ attention to the ‘ineffectiveness’ of (some) speakers within his work.
Part 3 focuses on indirect ways of stirring up emotions. Gabriel Evangelou and Jennifer Devereaux examine Cicero’s Letters to Atticus and Seneca’s On Anger respectively. Andreas Serafim’s piece adds to our understanding of inexplicit appeals to emotions in Attic forensic oratory. He shows that speakers use imperative verbs in conjunction with medical imagery and resort to religious argumentation in order to elicit fear or contempt in the jurors.
The three chapters in part 4, perhaps the most cohesive in the volume, explore the intersection between gender and persuasion in trials from Classical Athens (Konstantinos Kapparis), Thucydides’ Sicilian debate (Jessica Evans) and female speeches in Livy (T. Davina McClain). Jessica Evans’ piece is a particularly effective demonstration of how speeches participate in the shaping of gendered identity and how, in turn, gendered appeals can determine the success or failure of a speech.
Part 5 assesses the persuasive role of language, style and performance in Attic oratory (Tzu-I Liao and Alessandro Vatri), Xenophon’s historiographical works (Roger Brock) and Pliny’s Letters (Margot Neger). S.C. Todd traces the uses and meanings of the word martus and its derivations from Herodotus to Eusebius. This impressive survey allows him to conclude that the primary function of a martus was less as an ‘eyewitness’ and more as someone ‘who is prepared publicly and authoritatively to back your version of events’ (297). Iwould also single out Liao’s essay on Demosthenes 18: this detailed analysis of Demosthenes’ language and use of pronouns demonstrates how this speech crosses and exploits the (theoretical) boundaries between symbouleutic and forensic oratory.
I found part 6, which maps out the persuasive operation of financial discourse, the most stimulating of the volume. Tazuko Angela van Berkel interprets Pericles’ list of resources (Thuc. 2.13) as an example of ‘numerical rhetoric’, tries to boost collective morale; meanwhile, Robert Sing contrasts Pericles’ rhetoric of numbers with Demosthenes’ attempt to adjust financial arguments to his audience’s expectations and beliefs. Both essays show convincingly that numbers are open to interpretation and that political leaders must be able to communicate, and exploit, financial information effectively.
Most of the chapters are rich in footnotes, and an index locorum makes it easy to follow up specific passages. As a whole, this collection of essays offers a valuable contribution to our understanding of ancient persuasion and paves the way for further interdisciplinary work on its mechanisms (and its failures). The breadth of topics covered will no doubt ensure that this volume will be useful to a wide audience of both specialists and non-specialists.
