From this time onward, oratory is practically dead; declamations on fictitious subjects took the place of real speeches in the assembly or the courts; oratory became an element in education and nothing more. We need mention only Hegesias of Magnesia (c. 250 B.C.), the founder of what was subsequently known as the ‘Asian’ school of rhetoric, the characteristics of which were affected expression, grotesque metaphor, plays upon words, incongruous rhythms, and general lack of ideas.[498] Dionysius quotes an extract, with the remark that it looks as if it had been written for a joke. Hegesias is important only on account of the debasing influence which he exercised over his Greek and Roman followers.
For a genuine revival of oratory we must wait till the last years of the Roman Republic.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Iliad, ix. 443.
[2] Ibid., ix. 502 sqq.
[3] Herod., viii. 83.
[4] Thuc., i. 138.
[5] § 42.
[6] Brutus, § 28.
[7] Themistocles, ch. ii.