Come sotto processo: simulazioni di oratoria giudiziaria in Elio Aristide (or.28 e 33)

Aristides’ orations 28 ‘De paraphtegmate’ and 33 ‘Contra criminantes quod non declamaret’ are structured as apologies. They both constitute polemical responses to people who criticized Aristides in two different occasions, referring to his duties and his behavior towards the public and his students. The assumption of such an apologetic perspective implies in both cases the simulation of a judiciary context as a rhetorical strategy: Aristides portrays himself as an innocent defendant, and his critics as sycophants. The present paper argues that, in these two speeches, the apologetic perspective and the ʽjudiciaryʼ simulation strengthen Aristides’ main purpose: defending and promoting his own model of rhetoric and rhetorician.