Note 54 — Chapter II · ROMAN EDUCATION UNDER THE EMPIRE

The Roman term given to Greek rhetorical methods is marked by the change of terminology, which indicates a change in practice. The main exercises at first had been called theses, the Greek term (θέσεις) applied to general questions for debate, such as “Ought a man to marry or remain single?” “Is it better to take a share in public life or to mind one’s own affairs?” Then came a business-like development or Roman condescension from general to particular whereby an approach to facts and reality was made in treating “cases” such as those tried before a court; and, appropriately, these exercises were called by a Latin name, causae. Both terms were in use during Cicero’s days, but early in his career there emerged the fashion of declamatio, the scholastic exercise in rhetoric based on but not identical with Greek models; and in course of time we read no longer of theses and causae, but of controuersiae and suasoriae—both, it will be noted, Latin, not Greek terms.