Sailing to Sophistopolis: Gregory of Nazianzus and Greek Declamation

Declamation, as a fictitious speech on a popular stock theme, was developed in the schools of rhetoric as a means of practicing the rules of forensic oratory, the so-called staseis. A subset of those stock themes was concerned with school life in general, and the teacher-student animosity in particular. Gregory of Nazianzus might have used the school-related themes as inspiration for some of his own speeches, e.g., Orations 3, 33, 36, etc. Given the fact that a declamation was supposed to demonstrate a good knowledge of the various techniques of argument, but was not expected to be based on real events, one should exercise caution in reading and interpreting Gregory's speeches as historical sources. Also, the place of their delivery (lecture hall perhaps), as well as the occasion (feast days of saints and martyrs, i.e., the panēgureis), give further indication that the speeches in question were not sermons/homilies strictly speaking, but rather educational show pieces sui generis.