The analysis of legal debates in Aristotle’s Rhetoric: Tradition and innovation

Abstract

Already in antiquity, Aristotle’s Rhetoric was mentioned among the possible sources of Hellenistic stasis theories, and modern scholarship has also seen attempts at describing this influence. The lack of sources makes such an endeavour unlikely to be successful, however. It is nevertheless a valid question to what extent the Rhetoric can help us understand the development of stasis theories, in terms of parallels rather than origins. The first part of the paper compares the analysis of legal disputes in the Rhetoric with that of the Rhetorica ad Alexandrum, since the latter is usually considered as being closer to earlier rhetorical tradition. The second half then deals a mora specific question, the sub-issues of the stasis of ‘quality’ (poiotēs), the Hermagorean description of which is considered problematic by both Cicero and Quintilian. The Hermagorean distinction, however, seems quite similar to Aristotle’s discussion of the various aspects of wrongdoing.