Reflection Paper 16

Rhetoric is when someone is trying to persuade an audience. Its relationship to Roman Education is in many ways. One way being that it was used in legal cases as seen in “The Apology” where Socrates uses the rhetoric method in his trial. Teachers would encourage their students to argue in debates it provided critical thinking in certain situations if a scenario was created. Legal cases today involve the use of rhetoric as well as things such as debates as well as presidential debates. It also gave a new style to literature. It majorly influenced storytelling and reciting by giving it a twist which the adults loved. Look at poems and plays performed, before there wasn’t much to them to be honest. Once rhetoric was used conflicts were created and made the stories, poems, etc more dramatic and exciting to watch. It left the audience stunned and entertained. Even the emperor enjoyed the conflict filled dramas, it was an entirely new style introduced and the Romans loved it. If you were to take William Shakespeare’s work you would see that it is filled with nothing but drama. If there was no drama in his plays then they wouldn’t be as popular then as they are in today’s world. I doubt we would be required to study his plays in school if they didn’t involve rhetoric. Even we wouldn’t have our wonderful dramas as we do now without it. We wouldn’t have much of a selection to choose from if conflicts weren’t involved in what we enjoy. I think that rhetoric was introduced because perhaps the Romans grew tired of the same old method that they were used to and wanted something different for a change. They were able to entertain themselves by using the rhetoric form in their writings and performances. We wouldn’t have many of the things we do today without it. Court cases would be as effective if they didn’t have rhetoric and I don’t think that their writing wouldn’t have been as strong or as influential to be remembered in our world today. Rhetoric has influenced the Roman Education in things such as law and entertainment for example but those are only a few.