Abstract

The ancients never confined their philosophy to the systematic exposition of doctrine. Orations, treatises, dialogues and letters aimed at persuading people to become lovers of wisdom. Rhetorical feats, logical intricacies, or mystical experience served to recruit adherents, to promote and defend philosophy and to support adherents. Protreptic was the literary form that served all these functions. This volume seeks to illuminate both the diversity and the continuity of protreptic in the work of a wide range of authors, from Parmenides to Augustine.