The Speeches of Apollodoros III: Education and Intellectual Background

Abstract In this chapter I shall be examining what the speeches can tell us about Apollodoros as an orator, and in particular about the sort of education and training which he is likely to have received. Scholars who have attempted to determine whether or not he had received rhetorical training have reached widely differing conclusions. Thus F. Blass considered that the speeches show their author to have possessed a certain technical expertise in structure and argumentation, which could not have been acquired except through such an education. He went on to argue from this that Apollodoros could not have written the speeches, since in that case the speaker of Dem. 36 would not have missed the opportunity to rebuke him for misusing his expensive education. L. Gernet argued against this that he could have picked up enough knowledge of oratorical technique to have written the speeches simply by regular attendance at the assembly. L. Pearson chooses to attribute the weaknesses of his speeches to a lack not of education but of experience. This divergence of opinion suggests that the question needs a thorough re-examination.