LA 1300 · Trivium: The School of Rhetoric — Module 1: Invention, and What an Orator Is

Led by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus Simulacrum

The third art, and the one Plato said was not an art at all. Quintilian's good man skilled in speaking, the three kinds of oratory, the four stasis questions, and the argument that will work and should not be used.

1. Module 1

   Invention, and What an Orator Is

   Led by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus Simulacrum

   The question

   Seven sittings on the first canon and on what the art is for. You

   Outcome

   The student can identify which of the three kinds of oratory a

   Sub-units

   1. ○ 1.1 Plato's Charge Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   2. ○ 1.2 Vir Bonus Dicendi Peritus Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   3. ○ 1.3 The Three Kinds Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   4. ○ 1.4 Stasis: Finding the Point at Issue Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   5. ○ 1.5 Ethos, Pathos, Logos Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   6. ○ 1.6 Invention with an Audience in View Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   7. ○ 1.7 Preparing a Case Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   Begin the course → Print certificate of completion

   Practice scenarios

   The Case That Would Win

   You are advising an advocate. Her case is weak on the facts but she has found an argument that will work: it exploits a known prejudice in the tribunal, it is not *false* exactly, and it is very likely to succeed. She is not a cynic — she believes her client is in the right and this may be the only way to secure a just outcome. She has asked you, plainly, whether to use it.

   Your goals

   • Determine whether the argument is unsound or merely unlovely, and be precise
   • Establish the stasis of the case, and whether her argument addresses it
   • Identify what the tribunal's prejudice is being used to *replace*
   • Apply Quintilian's position, and state what it costs her client
   • Say whether *vir bonus dicendi peritus* gives an answer here or a disposition

   Practise this scenario →