Arrangement

Aristotle’s discussion of arrangement focuses on the parts of an oration. Four parts receive separate treatment: the proem, narration, proof, and epilogue (3.14, 16, 17, 19). In the case of the first three, the material is organized according to the tripartite division of rhetoric into epideictic, judicial and deliberative. The discussion of the proem is supplemented by remarks on removing slander (3.15), and the account of proof is followed by remarks on interrogation and the utility of jests (3.18). The general impression conveyed is that of a teaching manual. There are numerous directions, some of which are expressed in the second person: pronoun, adjective, or verb including the imperative. We may have here Aristotle’s earliest course of lectures on rhetoric, albeit with revisions and additions of a later date.

Striking is 3.13, i. e., the chapter with which Aristotle begins his discussion of arrangement. Here Aristotle asserts that the necessary parts of an oration are two: statement of the case and proof. The proem is not an essential part of a deliberative oration, narration belongs only to judicial orations, and an epilogue is not always part of a judicial speech (1414a30-b7). Nevertheless, Aristotle does allow a maximum of four parts: proem, statement of the case, proof and epilogue. Narration remains excluded (1414b8-9). 3.13 may be compared with 1.1 and 3.1, where Aristotle emphasizes arguing the case. Temporal proximity is likely. I note only that in the subsequent discussion of the proem Aristotle continues to exhibit a restrictive attitude. He lists techniques for securing and discouraging the attention of the listener, but he includes a reminder that all such techniques are outside the argument and directed toward a worthless auditor who listens to matters that are extraneous to the matter at issue (3.14 1415b5-6).