Description: The first translation, produced by a team of eight scholars, of the Declamations and Preliminary Talks of the sixth-century sophist Choricius of Gaza. Declamations, deliberative or judicial orations on fictitious themes, were the fundamental advanced exercises of the rhetorical schools of the Roman Empire, of interest also to audiences outside the schools. Some of Choricius' declamations are on generic themes (e.g. a tyrannicide, a war-hero), while others are based on specific motifs from Homeric times or from classical Greek history. The Preliminary Talks were typical prefaces to orations of all kinds. This volume also contains a detailed study of Choricius' reception in Byzantium and Renaissance Italy. It will be of interest to students of late antiquity, ancient rhetoric, and ancient education.
Brief description: Robert J. Penella is Professor of Classics at Fordham University, New York. He is the author of The Letters of Apollonius of Tyana (1979); Greek Philosophers and Sophists in the Fourth Century: Studies in Eunapius of Sardis (1990); The Private Orations of Themistius (2000); and Man and the Word: The Orations of Himerius (2007).
Review Quotes: 'This edition is well written and well edited ... Penella expresses the wish at the end of his introduction that this translation will make Choricius and the School of Gaza better known. I believe he has admirably accomplished this goal.' Heather Waddell Gruber, Bryn Mawr Classical Review