Greek Declamation and the Roman Empire

Shows how Greek declamation's staging of the Classical past was of vital importance for the Greek imperial present.

William Guast (Author)

9781009297127, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 July 2023

238 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.491 kg

A Greek declamation was an 'imaginary speech': a fictitious speech composed for a rhetorical scenario set in Classical Greece. Although such speeches began as rhetorical exercises, under the high Roman empire they developed into a full-blown prestigious genre in their own right. This first monograph on Greek declamation for nearly forty years re-evaluates a genre that was central to Greek imperial literature and to ancient and modern notions of the 'Second Sophistic'. Rejecting traditional conceptions of the genre as 'nostalgic', this book considers the significance of Greek declamation's re-enactment of classical history for its own times, and integrates the genre into the wider history of the period. It shows through extended readings how the genre came to constitute a powerful and subtle instrument of identity formation and social interaction, and a site for free thinking on issues of major contemporary importance such as imperialism and inter-polis relations.

Introduction
1. Exempla and Exemplarity
2. Declamation, Life, and the Imagination
3. Text and Performance Context
4. Identity Parade
5. Macedon
6. Strife and Concord
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1]