HERMOGENES

hermogenes, of tarsus, greek rhetorician, surnamed [greek: xuster] (the polisher), flourished in the reign of marcus aurelius (a.d. 161-180). his precocious ability secured him a public appointment as teacher of his art while as yet he was only a boy; but at the age of twenty-five his faculties gave way, and he spent the remainder of his long life in a state of intellectual impotence. during his early years, however, he had composed a series of rhetorical treatises, which became popular text-books, and the subject of subsequent commentaries. of his [greek: techne rhetorike] we still possess the sections [greek: peri ton staseon] (on legal issues), [greek: peri heureseos] (on the invention of arguments), [greek: peri ideon] (on the various kinds of style), [greek: peri methodou deinotetos] (on the method of speaking effectively), and [greek: progymnasmata] (rhetorical exercises). editions by c. walz (1832), and by l. spengel (1854), in their _rhetores graeci_; bibliographical note on the commentaries in w. christ, _geschichte der griechischen literatur_ (1898).