Narrative Setting and actio in Herodian’s Speeches

This article studies how some of the narrative settings in Herodian’s History supply the reader with fundamental rhetorical information about the actio of its speeches. I examine the actio in the settings of the speeches delivered by Marcus Aurelius (1.4.2–6), Crispinus (8.3.4–6), and Maximinus (7.8.4–8). These settings can determine the length of a speech, the typology of an address, or the characterisation of the speaker. Accordingly, readers can understand why the historian chooses a particular type of speech in each narrative context. All this evinces the great care which Herodian put into the writing of these sections of his History .