ABSTRACT
The great problem facing higher education was the lack of books, given the destruction that had occurred in 1204. Therefore, the ancient rhetors had to be rediscovered and edited by teachers. Teachers and students of rhetoric continued to the very end to study hard and to imitate the Attic Greek language and ancient Greek oratory, and to write encomia for emperors and funeral orations for empresses. Rhetoric was the most important and perhaps the most time-consuming subject in the framework of the Byzantine education system. This education, therefore, was mostly sponsored by the state and approved by the Church and was accessible only to a small number of students, mainly in the capital and at certain periods in the great cities of the Empire also. The teacher, Hexapterygos, to whom these students were sent for training, is known more from this incident than from his surviving rhetorical works.
