Lingua suspectaon concealing and displaying the art of rhetoric

Abstract

It is a commonplace of forensic and deliberative rhetoric that “art” should be hidden, although in oratorical practice display may have a positive effect and so its justification. On the basis of this duplicity a closer look is taken at the principle of dissimulatio artis in Aristotle and in Roman writers on rhetoric. There is a stress on the criterium of aptum throughout, as well as on ethos. The relationship between art and nature, the interplay between speaker and audience, and the relevance of admiration for persuasion are discussed. In conclusion, it is suggested that the much advertised principle of dissimulatio artis may have led to the role of display in both rhetorical theory and oratorical practice being downplayed.