Schemata Lexeos - Figures of Rhetoric

Effective communication is the cornerstone of all literature, and most of the authors we love, from Shakespeare to Aristotle, from Cicero to Churchill, were educated in one of its most essential tools: rhetoric. Rhetoric, from ῥῆσις (rhēsis) "speech" or "utterance," is the art of communicating, whether written or spoken, your thoughts, your opinions, your mind. It was used by rhetors in Ancient Athens to persuade the Assembly of the importance of defending their democracy, and orators in Rome to address the citizens in the Forum. Barristers, statesmen, authors, poets of all ages make use of the careful arrangement of words to get the desired point across.
The explicit teaching of rhetoric has fallen out of favor in the past couple centuries. This, I believe, has limited our ability as thinkers in a free society to recognize rhetorical tricks used by salesmen, lawyers, and politicians, and also hindered our own capacity to communicate clearly, effectively, and artfully. But have no fear, Lupus our ancient rhetorician are here!
Rutilius Lupus's Figures of Speech - Schēmata Lexeōs, the Romanization of the Greek σχήματα λέξεως "figures of speech" - is a very enjoyable read, very useful for anyone interested in understanding how Cicero and Demosthenes embellished their speeches, and very brief! Indeed, the entire work of two "books" (in the ancient sense, meaning the scrolls they onto which they were copied) is contained in this modest volume, which represents the entire preserved corpus of Lupus. His handbook appears to have been a Latin version of a similar work by Gorgias of Athens, the tutor of Cicero's son, and contains skillful Latin translations of parts of speeches by famous Greek rhetors whose writings have otherwise been lost. In this, Rutilius Lupus has left us with another precious link to the past.