ABSTRACT
There were three important centers for the study of rhetoric in the ancient Greek world. The first was Athens, a site well chronicled in the history of rhetoric. The second important center for rhetoric was Rhodes, a site that has also been studied by historians of rhetoric. The third “center” for the study of ancient Greek rhetoric was broadly considered to be Asia Minor, encompassing several sites even further east than Rhodes. Of all three centers of rhetoric, Asia Minor is the least known, most misunderstood and (as a consequence) shrouded in the darkest veil of mystery. Yet, the impact of Greek sophists from Asia Minor was enduring and widespread, prospering into and throughout the Roman Empire as a mainstay of Hellenistic education and later the foundation of the Second Sophistic. It is possible that one of the centers for the study of Asiatic rhetoric was Halicarnassus, a city once famous in antiquity but today barely noticed by scholars of rhetoric. This chapter concentrates on Halicarnassus and does so not only to shed light on the possibility that Halicarnassus may have been a center for the study of Asiatic rhetoric but also to serve as a paradigm to encourage further research in comparative rhetoric(s) that will offer new insights to important periods and centers for the study of our discipline.
