Rhetoric as the art of persuasion in the Greek and Roman worlds

Abstract

This chapter highlights some of the main achievements of classical rhetoric. Specifically, it explains what made rhetoric an art of particular value for political/public debate. Through remarkable passages from Greek and Roman authors, in primis Aristotle and Cicero, the chapter shows the link between rhetoric and truth, the nature of arguments and the basics of classical argumentation theory, within the framework of three forms of appeal to the audience: the rational, the ethical and the emotional. It demonstrates that lessons from classical authors are not only fundamental to contemporary research in persuasive speech, but continue to empower in practical terms virtually anyone who aims to convince a (political/public) audience. In addition, it proves that classical rhetoric was the first to identify what is considered the main problems and pitfalls of modern public communication: manipulation, fallacious reasoning, post-truth and lying.