Hermagoras of

Temnos Temnos or Temnus ( grc, Τῆμνος; grc-x-aeolic, Τᾶμνος) was a small Greek ''polis'' (city-state) of ancient Aeolis, later incorporated in the Roman province of Asia, on the western coast of Anatolia. Its bishopric was a suffragan of ...

( grc, Ἑρμαγόρας Τήμνου, fl. 1st century BC) was an

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

ian of the

Rhodian Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

school and teacher of rhetoric in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, where the Suda states he died at an advanced age. He appears to have tried to excel as an orator (or rather declaimer) as well as a teacher of rhetoric. But it is especially as a teacher of rhetoric that he is known to us. The members of his school, among whom numbered the jurist

Titus Accius Titus Accius was a Roman jurist and knight. Accius was a native of Pisaurum. In 66 BC he stood as prosecutor in the murder trial of Aulus Cluentius Habitus, accused of killing Oppianicus the elder with poison. Cicero was Cluentius's sole d ...

, called themselves ''Hermagorei''. Hermagoras's chief opponent was Posidonius of

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

, who is said to have contended with him in argument in the presence of

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of ...

. He devoted particular attention to what is called

inventio ''Inventio'', one of the five canons of rhetoric, is the method used for the ''discovery of arguments'' in Western rhetoric and comes from the Latin word, meaning "invention" or "discovery". ''Inventio'' is the central, indispensable canon of rh ...

, and made a peculiar division of the parts of an oration, which differed from that adopted by other rhetoricians.

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

opposes his system, but

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilia ...

defends it, though in some parts the latter censures what Cicero approves of. But in his eagerness to systematize the parts of an oration, he was said to have entirely lost sight of the practical point of view from which oratory must be regarded. He appears to have been the author of several works which are lost: the

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...

mentions ( graeca sunt, non leguntur) , , , , and ,Suda On Lin
epsilon 3024
although perhaps some or all of these should be attributed to his younger namesake,

Hermagoras Carion Hermagoras may refer to: * Hermagoras of Amphipolis (3rd century BC), stoic philosopher *Hermagoras of Temnos (1st century BC), rhetorician *Hermagoras of Aquileia Saint Hermagoras of Aquileia (also spelled Hermenagoras, Hermogenes, Ermacoras) ( ...

, the pupil of

Theodorus of Gadara Theodorus of Gadara ( el, Θεόδωρος ὁ Γαδαρεύς) was a Greek rhetorician of the 1st century BC from Gadara (present-day Um Qais, Jordan)Blank, David"Philodemus" The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 Edition), Edward ...

. Hermagoras' method of dividing a topic into its "seven circumstances" (who, what, when, where, why, in what way, by what means), which he may have borrowed from Aristotle, provided the roots of the " 5 W's" used widely in journalism, education, and police investigation to ensure thoroughness in the coverage of a particular incident or subject matter.

References

See also