Introduction to Classical Legal Rhetoric

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A New Look at an Old Discipline - Rated
Over 2,000 years ago the Greeks and Romans worked out pragmatic principles of advocacy which are as applicable to the modern courtroom as they were to the Areopagus or the Forum. Prof. Frost has done superb job of demonstrating this in his excellent work. Quintilian wrote that a lawyer's presentation should be lucid, brief, and worthy of belief. Prof. Frost's work achieves all three of these qualities. The practicing attorney would do well to read this book, and then delve into some of the Classical works it cites. Cicero's "De Inventione" or the anonymous "Rhetorica ad Herennium" would be good places to start.

Two minor criticisms of the book: 1. Prof. Frost cites to the Classical works using standard legal citation style. It would have been more helpful if he had used the citation style of Classicists and historians, citing to the book, chapter, and verse of the ancient authors. 2. He spends more time on the written aspects of advocacy than he does on the oral. Classical rhetoric was nothing if it was not an oral discipline. There is a need for another book applying the Classical rhetorical principles to the trial court rather than the appellate court.