Rhetoric Review Oct 2003

"I Have No Predecessor to Guide My Steps": Quintilian and Roman Authorship

John Logie

Abstract

Quintilian is known primarily as an advocate of a pedagogical system grounded in imitation. But in Book XII of the Institutio Oratoria, Quintilian states that he has left the work of his predecessors behind and, further, that he is offering an original contribution to the rhetorical tradition. Quintilian's claims of originality and proprietary interest throughout his texts demonstrate that he is continually announcing himself as an author, in surprisingly modern terms. This paper argues that Quintilian honors his own demand that the ideal rhetor move beyond quotation and canny arrangement of his predecessors' work.

Journal
Rhetoric Review
Published
2003-10-01
DOI
10.1207/s15327981rr2204_2
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Open Access
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Topics
classical rhetoric rhetorical criticism writing pedagogy
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Murphy (2016)
    An Essay on Current Quintilian Studies in English, With a Select Bibliography o…
    Advances in the History of Rhetoric
  2. Walzer (2006)
    Moral Philosophy and Rhetoric in theInstitutes: Quintilian on Honor and Expediency
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly

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  3. Bizzell, Patricia, and Bruce Herzberg, eds. The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Pr…
  4. Brinton Alan (1983)
    Philosophy and Rhetoric 16.3 (
  5. Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformation…
Show all 16 →
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     ↗
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  10. Woodmansee, Martha, and Peter Jaszi. "Report: Intellectual Property and the Construction of Authorship-A Coll…
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CrossRef global citation count: 6 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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