Provides a comprehensive history of classical rhetoric. This work begins by identifying the rhetorical features of early Greek literature that anticipated the formulation of "metarhetoric," or a theory of rhetoric, in the fifth and fourth centuries and then traces the development of that theory through the Greco-Roman period.

PrefaceCh. 1Introduction: The Nature of Rhetoric3Ch. 2Persuasion in Greek Literature before 400 B.C.11Ch. 3Greek Rhetorical Theory from Corax to Aristotle30Plato's Gorgias35Plato's Phaedrus39Isocrates43The Rhetoric for Alexander49Aristotle51Ch. 4The Attic Orators64Lysias65Demosthenes68Ch. 5Hellenistic Rhetoric81Theophrastus84Later Peripatetics87Demetrius, On Style88The Stoics90The Academics93The Epicureans93Asianism95Hermagoras and Stasis Theory97Ch. 6Early Roman Rhetoric102Cato the Elder106Roman Orators of the Late Second and Early First Centuries B.C.111Latin Rhetoricians115Cicero's On Invention117The Rhetoric for Herennius121Ch. 7Cicero128Cicero's Orations in the Years from 81 to 56 B.C.129On the Orator140For Milo and Cicero's Later Speeches147Brutus and Orator151Ch. 8Rhetoric in Augustan Rome159Greek Rhetoricians of the Second Half of the First Century B.C.160Dionysius of Halicarnassus161Declamation and Seneca the Elder166Ch. 9Latin Rhetoric in the Silver Age173Quintilian177Discussions of the "Decline of Eloquence"186Pliny the Younger192Fronto and Gellius196Apuleius199Ch. 10Greek Rhetoric under the Roman Empire201Progymnasmata202Hermogenes and the Formation of the Hermogenic Corpus208Prolegomena217Other Greek Rhetorical Treatises224Ch. 11The Second Sophistic230Dio Chrysostom233Polemon and Herodes Atticus237Aclius Aristides239Sophistry from the Late Second to the Early Fourth Century241The Sophistic Renaissance of the Fourth Century242Prohaeresius243Himerius245Libanius248Themistius251Synesius252The "University" of Constantinople254The School of Gaza255The Decline of the Schools256Ch. 12Christianity and Classical Rhetoric257Christian Panegyric260Gregory of Nazianzus261Other Major Figures of the Fourth Century263The Latin Fathers264Saint Augustine265Ch. 13The Survival of Classical Rhetoric from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages271The Decline in the East271The Decline in the West273Latin Grammarians of Later Antiquity274The "Minor" Latin Rhetoricians275Martianus Capella279Cassiodorus279Isidore of Seville280Other Late Latin Works on Rhetoric280Bede and Alcuin281Boethius282Bibliography285Index297

"The discipline of rhetoric, as Mr. Kennedy shows meticulously, was central to ancient life."--The Economist "The panoptic vision, the reliable accounts, and deeply conservative view of what constitutes rhetoric and rhetorical theory have justly made these books standard for classicists and other disciplines... Many of the qualities admired in the three volumes are transferred elegantly to the briefer format. There are few scholars who could construct such a compilation."--Bryn Mawr Classical Review