Extract

A child prodigy, admired by Marcus *Aurelius, he failed to fulfil his promise as a speaker (hostile account in Philostratus, VS 2. 577), but wrote a comprehensive set of textbooks on rhetoric which were much used in Byzantine and Renaissance times. We have two works which are certainly genuine: one on staseis (types of issue, see rhetoric, greek), and one on ideai (types of style). Other works in the corpus are spurious (‘On the Method of Forcefulness’, Περὶ μεθόδου δεινότητος, and ‘On Invention’, Περὶ εὑρέσεως) or of doubtful authenticity (a set of *progymnasmata). The most significant is the book on types of style, which deals with seven types, all to be seen as ingredients in the perfection of *Demosthenes(2), but identifiable, in various proportions, in other authors: they are clarity (σαφήνεια), grandeur (μέγεθος), beauty (κάλλος), rapidity (γοργότης), character (ἦθος, covering qualities like simplicity, subtlety, and sweetness), sincerity (ἀλήθεια), and forcefulness (δεινότης).