Arengas, retórica e historiografía: Reflexiones sobre la Rhetorica militaris de Siriano Magister

The first part of this essay reviews the recent book published by Immacolata Eramo on the War Speeches (Bari 2010) by the Byzantine rhetor Syrianus Magister. This book offers a careful edition, the first full translation ever made of the text and a detailed commentary. In the second part, we also analyse the relation between battle speeches and rhetorical norms from Antiquity to Byzantium in order to show the importance and signification of this Byzantine handbook, whose authentic value can only be appreciated if we consider the Greco-Latin historiographical and rhetorical tradition in which the military harangue is inserted.