Philostratus' Vita Apollonii is structured by the stylistic distinction, older than Aristotle, between composed and improvisational rhetorics. Philostratus extends this bipolar theory of rhetorical styles to define for Apollonius a religious discourse beyond sophistic rhetoric, marked by silence and oracular speech. The Vita represents and evaluates speech in a variety of rhetorical modes and voices, especially those of Apollonius and the narrator. The whole continuum from vulgar lies, through sophistic rhetoric to Pythagorean or Delphic oracle is exemplified inside the range of Apollonius' own speech habits as Philostratus represents them. Whatever its merits as historical biography, Philostratus' narrative methodically interprets key possibilities of eccentric religious and political speech in the Roman Empire.
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