Were religious, cultural and political issues fought in the rhetorical arena in Late Antiquity? Alberto J. Quiroga Puertas brings together twelve essays that deal with the role and importance of rhetoric in this period and explains how it was used as a hermeneutical, persuasive and exegetical tool.

In this volume Alberto J. Quiroga Puertas brings together twelve essays that deal with the role and importance of rhetoric in theology, literature and politics in Late Antiquity, more specifically in the fourth century CE. The point of departure of this book is the assumption that religious, cultural and political issues of that period were fought in the rhetorical arena. Thus aspects related to religious orthodoxy and the condemnation of heresies, to spiritual advancement, to the composition of a literary work, or to the ideological objectives of the rhetorical education in Late Antiquity are discussed in this volume. Authors such as Themistius, Libanius, Augustine, Evagrius, Firmicus, or the emperor Julian deployed in their works rhetorical devices and strategies in order to strengthen their arguments. The protean nature of rhetoric facilitated its use as a hermeneutical, persuasive and exegetical tool.

Inhalt
Alberto J. Quiroga Puertas: Foreword
1. Words and the Word: Rhetorical Strategies and Theology
Philip Rousseau: Homily and Exegesis in the Patristic Age: Comparisons of Purpose and Effect - Nicholas Baker-Brian: Between Testimony and Rumour: Strategies of Invective in Augustine's De moribus manichaeorum - Ilaria Ramelli: A Rhetorical Device in Evagrius: Allegory, the Bible, and Apokatastasis - Josef Lössl: Profaning and Proscribing. Escalating Rhetorical Violence in Fourth Century Christian Apologetic
2. Sacred and Profane in Late Antique Literature
Laura Miguélez: Rhetoric for a Christian Community: The Poems of the Codex Visionum - Manfred Kraus: Rhetoric or Law? The Role of Law in Late Ancient Greek Rhetorical Exercises - Aglae Pizzone: When Calasiris Got Pregnant: Shifting Perspectives on Story-Telling in Heliodorus' Aethiopica - John Watt: Themistius and Julian: their Association in Syriac and Arabic Tradition
3. Rhetoric and Political Speeches
David Konstan: Themistius on Royal Beauty - Guadalupe Lopetegui: The Panegyrici Latini: Rhetoric in the Service of Imperial Ideology - Peter Van Nuffelen/Lieve Van Hoof: No Stories for Old Men. Damophilus of Bithynia and Plutarch in Julian's Misopogon - Alberto J. Quiroga Puertas: Libanius' Horror Silentii Robert Penella: Prologue