In Stock
That tyrant, persuasion
Paperback
€24.00
Collect 72 Reward Points
- Free Delivery from
- This Book Is Available Online Only
- Book Synopsis
- How rhetorical training influenced deeds as well as words in the Roman Empire The assassins of Julius Caesar cried out that they had killed a tyrant, and days later their colleagues in the Senate proposed rewards for this act of tyrannicide. The killers and their supporters spoke as if they were following a well-known script. They were. Their education was chiefly in rhetoric and as boys they would all have heard and given speeches on a ubiquitous set of themes-including one asserting that "he who kills a tyrant shall receive a reward from the city." In That Tyrant, Persuasion, J. E. Lendon explores how rhetorical education in the Roman world influenced not only the words of literature but also momentous deeds: the killing of Julius Caesar, what civic buildings and monuments were built, what laws were made, and, ultimately, how the empire itself should be run. Presenting a new account of Roman rhetorical education and its surprising practical consequences, That Tyrant, Persuasion shows how rhetoric created a grandiose imaginary world for the Roman ruling elite-and how they struggled to force the real world to conform to it. Without rhetorical education, the Roman world would have been unimaginably different.
- About The Author
- J. E. Lendon is Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Song of Wrath: The Peloponnesian War Begins; Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity; and Empire of Honour: The Art of Government in the Roman World.
- Product Details
-
- ISBN
- 9780691221014
- Format
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press, (17 December 2024)
- Number of Pages
- 328
- Weight
- 503 grams
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 234.95 x 155.57 x 19 mm
- Categories: