Stylistic and argumentative function of rhetorical amplificatio

Amplification (auxesis) and its contrary (tapeinosis), diminution , are as old as rhetoric itself. Already Teisias and Gorgias – we are told in Plato’s Phaidrus (267 a) – used the power of the speech to make small things seem big and big things seem small. This bipolarity was due, of course, to the opposite needs of the orator to amplify or to minimize some elements according to their usefulness for winning the case. In Aristotle’s Rhetoric (1368 a 26-33) amplification is considered, together with examples and enthymemes , as one of the techniques common to all speeches. Nevertheless it never appears to be an independent rhetorical tool: its function is – so to speak – exploited inside the pisteis. Cicero inherited from Aristotle this argumentative use of amplification, but he coupled with it the stylistic function of embellishing the speech: summa … laus eloquentiae – says Crassus in De orat. 3,104 f. – est amplificare rem ornando and amplificatio itself una laus oratoris est et propria maxime. In this way the meaning of amplification becomes actually much wider, for the whole performance of the orator depends upon his ability to use it.