Stoics on tropes and figures

Abstract

Abstract Karl Barwick held the stance that Stoics developed a doctrine of tropes and figures. After revising Barwick’s arguments – following the path traced, among others, by Baratin, Desbordes, Schenkeveld and Ax – we have concluded that Barwick’s assumption lacks a solid foundation. Thus, τρόπος and σχῆμα are not attested as rhetorical terms among the Stoics; furthermore, the alleged opposition between λέξις ‘Einzelwort’ and λόγος ‘zusammenhängende Rede’ – which is the keystone of Barwick’s reconstruction – does not take place in Stoic dialectics. We have also shown that the doctrine of Latinitas ~ Ἑλληνισμός is not only peculiar to Stoic-oriented grammarians, and that specially by pointing to an Ars anonyma excerpted by the Augustean grammarian Verrius Flaccus. Future research on the origin of tropes and figures must focus on Theophrastus and the Peripatetic School, leaving aside the Stoic hypothesis.