Platone in tribunale: difesa della retorica e finzione processuale nei Discorsi platonici di Elio Aristide

Abstract

Plato to court: defence of rhetoric and trial fiction in Aelius Aristides’Platonic orations.

In the so called Platonic orations (orr. 2-4 Behr) Aelius Aristides intendsto rebut the polemic statements made by Plato in the Gorgias againstrhetoric and the four Athenian statesmen (Pericles, Miltiades, Cimon,Temistocles). Contrary to what past criticism has held, Aristides followsa specific coherent strategy by using judiciary speech as his point of reference.Through the literal quotation of some passages belonging to his‘adversary’, compared to laws and depositions, Aristides describes a Platowho is favourable to oratory and orators, thus writing a particularly significantchapter in the long and complex history of the (sometimes conflictual)relationship between rhetoric and philosophy.
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