Abstract

Asianism, initiated by Hegesias of Magnesia in the 3rd c. BCE, was a flowery, bombastic rhetorical style characterized by ‘effeminate’, hacked-up sentences, ornamented with various Gorgianic figures and aiming at producing an emotional effect. As such it was opposed to Attic rhetoric, which was characterized by a simple, direct, unemotional style that sought to persuade by logical argumentation. Asianism proved a catalyst for the emergence of Atticism i…