These then were some of the physical environments in which the ambitious orator had to deliver his speeches. For several centuries, however, the rhetorical tradition had fairly limited advice to offer him on the subject of public performance. Theophrastus (c. 371-287 bce) was probably the first writer to discuss oratorical delivery in any detail, although the precise nature of his treatment is unclear (Diog. Laert. 5.48; Rhet. Gr. 14.177.3-8, Rabe 1931; Fortenbaugh 1985). Aristotle certainly appreciated the role played by delivery both in the overall persuasive effect of a speech and in its style (Rh. 2.8.7-15, 2.24.5, 3.12.1-6); but overall he regards this practical aspect of the art as rather vulgar (phortikon, 3.1.5), and this intellectual prejudice seems to have continued for some time (see Quint. Inst. 3.3.4-5; Fantham 1982: 258). Even when delivery had become widely established as one of the orator’s necessary tasks (Quint. Inst. 3.3.3, 7-9), the attention paid to it by rhetoricians remained comparatively modest. In Rhetorica ad Herennium, for example, the author (hereafter ‘‘Auc-tor’’) dedicates sixty-nine sections to a detailed explication of elocutio (‘‘oratorical style,’’ 4.1-69); delivery is treated in a mere nine sections (3.19-28). The same disparity is reproduced in Cicero’s De Oratore:. sixty-four sections on elocutio (3.148-212), a mere fourteen on delivery (3.213-27). More detailed study seems to have been undertaken by Plotius Gallus (Quint. Inst. 11.3.143), presumably after the Auctor’s treatise had been written in the eighties bce (see Rhet. Her. 3.19), and by Nigidius Figulus (Quint. Inst. 11.3.143). These works have not survived, however, and our best, most detailed treatment is supplied by Quintilian (Inst. 11.3.1-184).
Nevertheless the discussion in Rhetorica ad Herennium (3.19-27), while relatively brief, provides a useful example of the taxonomical method typical of the Hellenistic rhetorical tradition. It is difficult to say exactly how innovative or derivative the Auctor’s treatment is, but it may contain several original elements, given his claim (3.19) that no one up to this point has written carefully on the subject (see Achard 1989: l). He begins by dividing the subject into two parts: the use of the voice (pronuntiatio) and gesture (actio). As Quintilian later notes (Inst. 11.3.1), both of these terms could in fact be used by extension to refer to the topic of delivery as a whole. These two categories are then further divided and subdivided into numerous parts which are briefly discussed in turn.
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