During the second, third, and fourth centuries, and throughout the Roman world, rhetoric meant a sophistic generally constant. The leanings of particular schools, such as Stoic Pergamum, were not wide enough to bring new departures. They were merely shifts of emphasis within a common doctrine and practise. The cult of “Atticism” was too artificial to check the general tendency to “Asianism.”[13] What was learned at Athens could be practised at Rome; and neither Athens nor Rome dimmed the glory of Smyrna and Antioch.[14] The schools of Bordeaux were to become essentially like those of Gaza and Carthage. The same “Gorgian figures” were learned by St. Augustine in Latin Africa, by St. Gregory Nazianzen in the Greek East, and by the pagan Libanius. Greco-Roman rhetoric was as pervasive as Roman law and almost as constant. 2. The Character of Sophistic a. VIRTUOSITY In estimating this rhetoric, then, little allowance need be made for place or date.[15] Its main characteristics were so constant as to stand out clearly. The most obvious arise from the general aim of virtuosity. This is the constant assumption of Philostratus. Individual triumphs were not so much triumphs of individuality as outstanding exhibitions of skill in working out a pattern. In method, in composition, there was little difference between a teacher’s assignments to his amateur pupils and his own professional orations.[16] Sophistic is largely an oratory of themes. (1) _Declamatio_[17] (μελέτη) THEMES OF THE SOPHISTS CELEBRATED BY PHILOSTRATUS HISTORICAL OR SEMI-HISTORICAL THEMES The Lacedemonians deliberate concerning a wall. I. 20 (70).[18] (Isæus; so Aristides, II. 9 (220).) Demosthenes swears that he did not take the bribe. Should the trophies erected by the Greeks be taken down? The Athenians should return to their demes after Ægospotami. Xenophon refuses to survive Socrates. Solon demands that his laws be rescinded after Pisistratus has obtained a bodyguard. I. 25 (122-132). (Polemo.) The Cretans maintain that they have the tomb of Zeus. II. 4 (188). (Antiochus.) Scythians, return to your nomadic life. II. 5 (194). (Alexander of Seleucia; so Hippodromus, II. 27 (296).) The wounded in Sicily implore the Athenians who are retreating thence to put them to death with their own hands. Pericles urges them to keep up the war even after the oracle declares Apollo’s support of the Lacedemonians. (II. 5; both also of Alexander.) Isocrates tries to wean the Athenians from their empire of the sea. Callixenus is upbraided for not having granted burial to the Ten. Deliberation on affairs in Sicily.[19] Æschines, when the grain had not come. Those whose children have been murdered reject a treaty of alliance. II. 9 (220, seq.) (Aristides.) Hyperides, when Philip is at Elatea, heeds only the counsels of Demosthenes. II. 10 (230). (Hadrian of Tyre.)