Hermagoras of Temnos

Hermagoras (Greek polytonic|Ερμαγόρας, fl. 1st century BC), of Temnos, was a Ancient Greek rhetorician of the Rhodian school and teacher of rhetoric in Rome.

He appears to have tried to excel as an orator (or rather declaimer) as well as a teacher of rhetoric. [Quintilian v. .3. § 59, viii. pr. § 3] [Suda "s.v." polytonic|Ερμαγόρας] 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 Tiberius Accius, called themselves "Hermagorei". Hermagoras's chief opponent was Posidonius of Rhodes, who is said to have contended with him in argument in the presence of Pompey. [Plutarch, "Pompey", 42]

He devoted particular attention to what is called inventio, and made a peculiar division of the parts of an oration, which differed from that adopted by other rhetoricians. [Quintilian iii. 1. § 16] Cicero opposes his system, [Cicero, "de Inventione" i. 6] but Quintilian defends it, [Quintilian iii. 3. § 9, 5. §§ 4, 16, &c., 6. § 56] though in some parts the latter censures what Cicero approves of. [Cicero, "de Inventione" i. 11] [Quintilian iii. 6. § 60, &c.] 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. [Quintilian iii. 11. § 22] [Tacitus, 19]

He appears to have been the author of several works which are lost: the Suda mentions polytonic|Ρητορικαί, polytonic|Περί εξεργασίας, polytonic|Περί φράσεως, polytonic|Περί σχημάτων, and polytonic|Περί πρέποντος, [Citation
last = Schmitz
first = Leonhard
author-link = Leonhard Schmitz
contribution = Hermagoras (1)
editor-last = Smith
editor-first = William
title = Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
volume = 2
pages = 408
publisher =
place = Boston
year = 1867
contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1516.html ] although perhaps some or all of these should be attributed to his younger namesake, Hermagoras Carion, the pupil of Theodorus of Gadara.

References

ee also

*Cicero
*Rhetoric
*Rhetorica ad Herennium