This monograph originated from an Oxford DPhil thesis completed in 2016. G. has done an excellent job of transforming it into a concise, elegant and compelling book. It addresses a long-standing question: what was the relationship between the Greek declamations performed during the Second Sophistic and the world of the Roman Empire in which they were produced? Did they carry contemporary political significance, or were they merely exercises in escapism, allowing their audiences to immerse themselves vicariously in the glorious past of Demosthenes, Plato and Alexander the Great? D.A. Russell, in what remains probably the most influential book on the subject (Greek Declamation [1983]), argued that these declamations existed in an artificial world (that he called ‘Sophistopolis’) and denied any meaningful connection between them and the realities of Roman rule. But if they were so detached from contemporary concerns, why did they enjoy such popularity?
G. takes a different approach. For him, these declamations functioned as coded messages, and their audiences were attuned to understanding their hidden meanings. When Lollianus improvised a declamation based on Demosthenes’ Against Leptines, he was, G. argues, alluding to his own function as a hoplite general responsible for the Athenian grain supply (pp. 71–2). When Polemo mentions Cynegirus, mutilated in the Battle of Marathon, and Callimachus, pierced by arrows during this battle but remaining upright even in death, he is speaking about his own illness and suffering (pp. 104–9). When Aelius Aristides performs declamations about Philip and Thebes, his speeches can be understood as a subtle and covert critique of Roman rule (pp. 119–43).
G.'s book is structured into two main parts. Following a brief introduction, Chapters 1–3 provide the theoretical framework. Chapter 1 explores the use of history as moral training and the role of exempla across various genres. The discussion of ‘diagnosis’, ‘rescaling’ and ‘meta-exemplarity’ (pp. 36–44) makes excellent use of recent scholarship on exemplarity and demonstrates that audiences possessed multiple sophisticated ways of engaging with the past and assessing its contemporary relevance. Chapter 2 argues that even seemingly absurd topics (such as war between Greek cities or tyranny) may have resonated with contemporary realities. Chapter 3, somewhat tentatively and speculatively, examines the performative context of declamations, particularly prolaliai and protheoriai; although there is no direct evidence for the latter in the Second Sophistic, G. assumes that they must have existed. Chapters 4–6 apply this methodology to specific declamations and themes: sophists ‘dropping the mask’ of their rhetorical persona and using their classical roles to enhance their own status (Chapter 4), declamations drawing parallels between Macedonian rule and the Roman Empire (Chapter 5), and speeches on Athens and Sparta during the Peloponnesian War mirroring disputes and tensions between Greek cities under Roman rule (Chapter 6). The book concludes with a short summary and two technical appendices.
The book is handsomely produced; there are only a few minor misprints. However, the decision to sort ancient texts under the names of their modern editors is unfortunate. One modern editor whose name is conspicuously absent is R.S. Stefec; it is regrettable that G. still relies on the cumbersome Olearius page numbers to reference Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists rather than using Stefec's 2016 OCT, with its clearer chapter and section divisions. That said, G.'s command of primary sources and scholarly literature is impressive. His prose is lucid and persuasive, making the book a pleasure to read. It remains accessible to non-specialists while offering arguments that specialists will find important to engage with.
G. is commendably forthright about the limitations of his argument: ‘We do not have direct evidence for the contemporary significance of Greek declamation, outside of one or two brief remarks in our sources. The argument of this book is rather principally inferential, with the cumulative weight of evidence … turning a possibility into an overwhelming probability’ (p. 15). Ultimately, readers will have to judge for themselves whether they find the case quite as overwhelming as G. claims. I must admit that I remain largely unconvinced. A mass of speculative readings does not amount to a strong argument, and the book contains page after page of ‘could have’, ‘may have been’ and ‘must have been’. To take just one example: the discussion on pp. 81–4 speculates about the locations in which certain declamations may have been performed. Perhaps listeners could see the Athenian Acropolis when it was mentioned in a speech, perhaps declaimers spoke in the bouleuterion, which facilitated a transfer to contemporary politics. But there is not a shred of evidence that the speeches were indeed performed in these locations.
At times, G.'s book resembles a lawyer's plea in court. He builds his argument as strongly as possible, carefully avoiding elements that might weaken his case. His theoretical framework appears sophisticated and persuasive, but it is overly broad: when the subject matter of a declamation offers parallels to contemporary concerns, this demonstrates its relevance, but an example ‘can just as well be meaningful through its differences from contemporary life’ (p. 37). If we accept these premises (both similarity and dissimilarity prove that the classical example was seen as relevant to the contemporary world), the hypothesis fails the test of falsifiability; it becomes irrefutable and begins to resemble a conspiracy theory: once you are convinced that these declamations have contemporary relevance, every detail falls into place; you find confirmation wherever you look.
But the proof of the pie is in the eating, and when G. turns to reading individual texts, some of his interpretations strain credibility. He seems aware of this when he writes (p. 128): ‘many readers do not need much in the way of suggestion from a text to read it in accordance with their pre-existing inclinations’. Consider, for example, his comparison between Pollux's declamation On the Islanders and Lucian's On Salaried Posts (p. 146): ‘Just as the islander is a eunuch who sits in the women's quarters with the king's concubines, so in Lucian we hear how Thesmopolis the Stoic sat uncomfortably next to beardless men with depilated legs and a man with rouged cheeks and underlined eyelids’. Even setting aside the fact that G.'s paraphrase is imprecise (Thesmopolis does not sit next to ‘men … and a man’, but rather one effeminate κίναιδος named Chelidonion), what exactly is the salient point of this parallel, the ‘just as’? Is it simply the sitting? Or the fact that the king's concubines were supposedly also depilated and adorned with makeup? And does any of this really amount to a ‘stimulus to negative reflections’ (p. 147) about Roman power?
Nonetheless, this review should not conclude on a purely critical note. G. proposes a number of fascinating and persuasive readings. When he points out that imperial authors used the Peloponnesian War as a negative example to promote concord between Greek cities (pp. 168–74), it becomes plausible that audiences of declamations on Athens and Sparta during this war would be willing to see the contemporary relevance of these historical enactments. Likewise, his suggestion that the political potential of declamations can be compared to the polysemy of Greek tragedy (p. 49; cf. 184–5) is thought-provoking and fruitful. In the end, readers will have to see for themselves where they draw the line between ‘plausible’ and ‘implausible’ transfers.
