Precepts on narratio in Latin Rhetoricians

This paper reviews and comments different texts containing the theories and doctrines developed by ancient Latin rhetoricians on the argumentative and persuasive characteristics of narrative discourse as opposed to explicitly argumentative discourse. As stated in the introduction and the conclusion, these theories became a source of inspiration to Rodophus Agricola’s study of the distinction expositio/argumentatio, a particularly interesting piece of his dialectic which may still be theoretically and philosophically valuable. We will review texts on narratio, most especially legal narratio, by Cicero (1st c. BCE), Quintilian (1st c.), Julius Severianus (2nd c.), Fortunatianus, Marius Víctorinus, Gaius Julius Víctor, Sulpicius Víctor (4th c.) and Martianus Capella (5th c.).