The topic of this article is the concept of diabole (personal attack) in ancient Greek rhetoric. I intend to show the ambivalent attitude of Greek oratory and rhet-oric toward this phenomenon; ambivalent because although diabole is depicted as a public danger, it is regularly adopted. My hypothesis is that this ambivalence de-pends on the intrinsic ambiguity of the concept of diabole itself. I believe that this ambiguity is strictly connected to the intrinsic competitiveness of public debate and that this competitiveness is a dynamic factor that cannot be eliminated. Therefore, despite its dangers, diabole still remains a risk that cannot be avoided. For this rea-son, a survey of this notion in ancient Greek rhetoric can provide useful insights into the general agonistic dimension of public life. Within this framework, first I will give a brief overview of the concept of diabole in ancient Greek literature. In the second part of the article I will focus on the explicit treatment of diabole in the Rhetoric to Alexandrum and in Aristotle's Rhetoric.

Piazza, F. (2014). Diabolè: The Personal Attack in Ancient Greek Rhetoric. In L. CALBOLI MONTEFUSCO, CELENTANO M (a cura di), Papers on Rhetoric (pp. 195-209). PERUGIA : PLINIANA.

Diabolè: The Personal Attack in Ancient Greek Rhetoric

PIAZZA, Francesca
2014-01-01

Abstract

The topic of this article is the concept of diabole (personal attack) in ancient Greek rhetoric. I intend to show the ambivalent attitude of Greek oratory and rhet-oric toward this phenomenon; ambivalent because although diabole is depicted as a public danger, it is regularly adopted. My hypothesis is that this ambivalence de-pends on the intrinsic ambiguity of the concept of diabole itself. I believe that this ambiguity is strictly connected to the intrinsic competitiveness of public debate and that this competitiveness is a dynamic factor that cannot be eliminated. Therefore, despite its dangers, diabole still remains a risk that cannot be avoided. For this rea-son, a survey of this notion in ancient Greek rhetoric can provide useful insights into the general agonistic dimension of public life. Within this framework, first I will give a brief overview of the concept of diabole in ancient Greek literature. In the second part of the article I will focus on the explicit treatment of diabole in the Rhetoric to Alexandrum and in Aristotle's Rhetoric.
2014
Piazza, F. (2014). Diabolè: The Personal Attack in Ancient Greek Rhetoric. In L. CALBOLI MONTEFUSCO, CELENTANO M (a cura di), Papers on Rhetoric (pp. 195-209). PERUGIA : PLINIANA.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10447/103980
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