Description
Rhetorica ad Herennium by an anonymous Roman author is one of the oldest surviving Latin works on rhetoric, dating to around the 80s BCE. The author is unknown. The work was traditionally attributed to Marcus Tullius Cicero, which is why some editions give the author as [Cicero] — the brackets indicate that the attribution is traditional rather than accepted as certain. It was also historically attributed to Cornificius, but neither attribution is accepted by modern scholarship.
The treatise explores the principles and techniques of classical rhetoric, including persuasion, argument, speech organisation, style and delivery. It is particularly well known for its discussion of memory and the method of loci, commonly known as the “memory palace”. The work remains an important source for readers interested in ancient Rome, classical rhetoric, public speaking and the history of memory techniques.
