The Rhetorica ad Herennium is the oldest surviving Latin book on rhetoric.

Written by an unknown author early in the first century BC, it has often been attributed to Cicero (it was written close in time to Cicero's De Inventione), but most scholars feel that it is not his work. Others have held that it is the work of Cornificius (e.g. Petrus Victorius, 1582; Tolkiehn, 1919; Kroll, 1934), but the issue has never been satisfactorily resolved. It is most likely that the treatise is actually a set of lecture notes copied down by the young student of an unknown teacher of rhetoric at Rhodes, which at that time the ancient world's center of rhetorical studies.

The work was not known in ancient times, but it was widely copied and read during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It was commonly used, along with Cicero's '"De Inventione, to teach rhetoric, and its popularity is evidenced by the large number of surviving manuscripts — over one hundred are extant. It was also copied extensively into European vernacular languages, and served as the standard schoolbook text on rhetoric in many schools during the Renaissance.

The work's importance to the art of rhetoric does not lie in its innovation nor in its depth. The rhetorics of Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian are far more important and influential works. Its success lies is focusing less on the philosophical underpinnings of rhetoric and more on practical applications and examples. This straightforward approach is no doubt what made it such an influential work in later times.

Another important aspect is that presents a glimpse into the development of Latin rhetoric. It clearly Greek in its doctrine, and synthesizes the ideas of many Hellenistic predecessors, including Isocrates, Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Hermagoras. Yet, its discussion of elocutio (style) is the oldest surviving systematic treatment of Latin style, and many of the examples are of contemporary Roman events. This new style, which flowered in the century following this work's writing, promoted revolutionary advances in Roman literature and oratory.

The Ad Herennium also provides the first complete treatment of memoria (memorization of speeches).

References

• Rhetorica ad Herennium (with an English translation by Harry Caplan). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1954. (Note: despite the fact that the preface by Caplan that repeats the case that the work is not by Cicero, its title page bears his name and it is often cataloged under his name).
• Rhetorica ad Herennium (Friedrich Marx, ed. Prolegomena in editio maior .), Tuebner, Leipzig, 1923.
• Golla, Georg. Sprachliche Beobachtungen zum auctor ad Herennium, Breslau, 1935.
• Kroll, Wilhelm. Die Entwicklung der lateinischen Sprache, Glotta 22 (1934). 24-27.
• Kroll, Wilhelm. Der Text des Cornificius, Philologus 89 (1934). 63-84
• Tolkiehn, Johannes. Jahresbuch des philologischen Vereins zu Berlin 45 (1919)

See Also

• Rhetoric