The Chreia and Ancient Rhetoric

This book provides the first translations in English and a preliminary analysis of the commentaries on the chreia chapter in Aphthoniuss standard Progymnasmata a classroom guide on composition. The chreia or anecdote was a popular form that preserved the wisdom of philosophers kings generals and sophists. Aphthonius used the chreia to provide instructions on how to construct an argument and to confirm the validity of the chreia by means of an eight-paragraph essay. His treatment of this classroom exercise however was so brief that commentators needed to clarify explain and supplement what he had written as well as to situate the chreia as preparation for the study of rhetoricthe kinds of public speeches and the parts of a speech. By means of these Byzantine commentaries we can thus see more clearly how this important form and its confirmation were taught in classrooms for over a thousand years.