Platone, Demostene e l'umbratilis oratio : a proposito di Dion. Hal. Dem. 32 (I, p. 200, 21 ss. Us.-R.)

This paper examines a passage from the treatise On Demosthenes by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in which the antithetical images of sun and shadow are applied to a comparison between Demosthenes’ and Plato’s style. The Dionysian simile is then compared with a series of passages from Cicero’s rhetorical works, dealing with philosophical or epideictic style, where the same imagery occurs, in order to determine the possible Ciceronian influence on Dionysius’ critical vocabulary. But a similar metaphorical system, applied now to the polemic against declamation, is to be found also in some later latin authors, as Quintilian and especially Cassius Severus (quoted by Seneca the Elder), who could have been inspired by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.