Stasis-theory seeks to classify rhetorical problems acccording to the underlying structure of the dispute that each involves. Such a classification is of interest to the practising rhetor, since it may help him identify an appropriate argumentative strategy; for example, patterns of argument appropriate to a question of fact may be irrelevant in an evaluative dispute.

Stasis-theory seeks to classify rhetorical problems acccording to the underlying structure of the dispute that each involves. Such a classification is of interest to the practising rhetor, since it may help him identify an appropriate argumentative strategy; for example, patterns of argument appropriate to a question of fact may be irrelevant in an evaluative dispute.

Stasis is a process of classical rhetoric that identifies the core issue in a trial or a similar debate. Hermagoras of Temnos included the first comprehensive analysis of stasis in his second-century BCE treatise on rhetoric, now lost. Modern scholars tend to echo George Kennedy, who maintains that Hermagoras’ inspiration for the hierarchical structure of stasis is indeterminate. This article, however, employs scholarship in legal semiotics, including the work of Miklós Könczöl and Bernard S. Jackson, to argue that (...) Hermagoras based stasiastic structure on Aristotle’s first-figure syllogism. Ideally, knowledge of that structure can enhance modern applications of stasis. (shrink)

Ancient rhetoric divided the questions which concerned the orator into the definite and the indefinite, quaestiones finitae and quaestiones infinitae, the former concerned with particular persons and occasions, the latter without any such reference. To take a simple example from Quintilian, ‘Should one marry?’ is a quaestio infinita, ‘Should Cato marry?’ a quaestio finita. The distinction was introduced, or at any rate first clearly formulated, by Hermagoras in the second century B.C., and became an established part of rhetorical theory. (...) The Greek term for the indefinite, or general, question was none of the various Latin equivalents used by Cicero attained general currency, and the Greek term prevailed. (shrink)

The article aims at clarifying the Stoic theory of ``prescription'', more specifically, the Stoic reflection about the method to formulate rules and directions for moral conduct. First, the possibility to provide particular precepts is considered in the frame of some major doctrines such as the equivalence between moral end and conformity to nature, the theory of the ``indifferents'', the partition of actions into katorthomata and kathekonta. Accordingly, both internal Stoic debate on the real value of particular precepts, and Hermagoras' (...) classification of zetemata, are considered in order to bring up the impact of early Stoic prescriptive theory on late Hellenistic ethics. Special attention is paid to Seneca's evidence from Epistles 94 and 95 - in their relation to Hermagoras' teachings -, and Plutarch's text from De Stoic. rep., ch. 11, with regard to Chrysippus' theory of prescription. (shrink)

In this paper we examine Cic. Inv. 1, 10 in order to reject the propositions which consist of interpreting in dictione ac disceptatione as an allusion to the genera dicendi or to the ἀσύστατα. These words are a sort of hendiadys, which translates the Greek adjective λογικήν, present in Hermagoras’ definition of thesis and hypothesis, as reconstructed by Striller and Jaeneke. We also provide new punctuation for this passage, in order to avoid a contradiction with Cic. Inv. 1, 17 (...) ; according to which, the four genitives aut facti aut nominis aut generis aut actionis present in Inv. 1, 10 have to refer to controversiam, not to quaestionem. (shrink)

Stasis theory has been the backbone of rhetorical theory ever since its full development by Hermagoras of Temnos in the second century BCE.1 Although Hermagoras’s original work was lost, the main parts of his theory were reconstructed in the twentieth century,2 thanks mainly to the major role stasis theory played in nearly all the important works of rhetorical theory until as late as the nineteenth century.3 Stasis theory aims at providing a toolset for the identification of vital issues (...) in cases of accusation and defense.4 To achieve this aim, Hermagoras, the Auctor ad Herennium, and classical authors such as Cicero, Quintilian, and Hermogenes of Tarsus created highly sophisticated models, which break up the main .. (shrink)

One precondition for debate is that it be about something. This scrap of conventional wisdom has been contemplated since at least the time of Hermagoras in the second century BCE, from whom a whole theory of the about has arisen: stasis theory. Michael Hoppmann wrote in the pages of this journal that stasis has been "the backbone of rhetorical theory" for over two millennia. Perhaps ironically, precisely how stasis should be understood is itself a topic for debate, although one (...) that Hoppmann claims has been increasingly elided in the rhetorical canon. The basic opposition, borrowing from A. Theodorakakou, is between a model of stasis as prior issue and... (shrink)