Rhetoric and history

The all-encompassing scope of grammar was a well-established principle in classical and late-antique discussions of learning. The study of works of history was as integral to the teaching of rhetoric in the Middle Ages as it was to an education in the principles of grammar. Historiography developed an intimate connection with each of the three basic categories into which rhetoric had been traditionally divided according to those areas of public life which it was designed to service: demonstrative or epideictic rhetoric, legal or judicial rhetoric, and deliberative rhetoric. The goal of demonstrative rhetoric is to set out someone's life in terms of what is morally worthy, that is, in relation to goods which are sought wholly for their own sake. Judicial rhetoric deals with the accusation of an individual on a particular charge, or with the defence of an individual against a particular charge.