Search results for " Rhetorical invention"

Le arringhe dei Generali alle truppe fra retorica e realtà

2010

Since war is the dominant subject matter in ancient Historiography, the general's speech to his men before battle is attested in almost all historians. The aim of the work was the study of the commander exhortations before the battle in Thucydides. Particular attention was devoted to the exhortations by two commanders during the Peloponnesian War: Brasidas, from Sparta, and Demosthenes, from Athens. The scope was to investigate what arguments they used in order to spurring the troops in the battle with audacity. Fact or Fiction? Thucydides had been a general himself. The speeches which he puts into generals' mouths before battle are not rhetorical invention. They keep as close as possible t…