Rhetoric of Myth, Magic, and Conversion: Ancient Irish Rhetoric

Our first tendency is to look outside Europe when searching for ancient rhetorics that do not follow the Greco-Roman tradition. After all, much of European culture was strongly influenced by Roman culture, especially following the conquests of Julius Caesar in 58-51 BCE and subsequent conquests that brought most of Europe under Roman control. Rome’s civic practices, including variations of Greco-Roman rhetoric, were eventually taught in most parts of the continent. Even after the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D., Greco-Roman rhetoric continued to flourish in Europe, because St. Augustine, a generation earlier, had re-purposed it for the Roman Catholic Church in his On Christian Doctrine (426 A.D.).