one area in which the wisdom of the Greeks can be particularly helpful is public speaking in the Classical era speaking before judges in democratic assemblies and at ceremonial occasions was the job of all educated citizens not just the responsibility of lawyers politicians ministers or celebrities Retro is preparing for an oratorical performance might train intensively before taking the podium one famous teacher of rhetoric filled his mouth with pebbles to improve his elocution so that he could sound as articulate as possible when speaking of course the ancient Greeks did not have microphones when they spoke in the forums of the city-states so developing a voice that was loud and clear really mattered but thanks to the efforts of their mathematicians and engineers they did have technologies of amplification amphitheaters were designed so that tens of thousands of people could hear actors and orators much of the educational system in the world of direct democracy emphasised acquiring rhetorical knowledge the five canons of classical rhetoric included invention arrangement style memory and delivery the term invention didn't necessarily mean originality or novelty as it does today because many Greeks learned rhetoric by imitating or appropriating elements or formats from famous speeches I use the mnemonic maids to remember the five canons memory arrangement invention delivery style memory was particularly important in an oral culture even as book culture arose during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance students memorize the patterns for reciting complex speeches by heart by creating imaginary blueprints or road maps these techniques for so-called palaces of memory or theatres of memory in which each part of the speech was associated with a particular place in an imaginary geography like a room in a lavish and elaborate house that you have visualized students progressed through parts of the speech as they envisioned walking from room to room and seeing objects that reminded them of the content this technique has been experiencing a resurgence in recent years executive training for corporate leaders may include this very old technique because it might be difficult to hear in public settings without electronic amplification body language also received a lot of attention even before dramatic speeches were captured on film or video in 19th century oratorical manuals there were even diagrams with suggested poses and gestures to punctuate the dramatic parts of a speech audiences might still be very physically remote from a speaker this is a shorthand record of the text of Lincoln's first inaugural address in front of the Capitol dome which was still unfinished at the time you can see a stereoscopic photograph an early 3d technology at the black and white era pasted into this witness's journal which was a souvenir from the event as I noted in the beginning of this discussion when considering how a film like The King's Speech dramatizes a rhetorical situation we can see that technology might transform the scale and accessibility of a given public address as Americans we might be more familiar with Roosevelt's history delivering so-called fireside chats on the radio even if in our own lives presidents address the public more intimately through television and increasingly on social media platforms for digital video like YouTube