Hermogenes of Tarsus

Hermogenes of Tarsus (Greek: Ἑρμογένης ὁ Ταρσεύς) was a Greek rhetorician, surnamed the polisher (Greek Ξυστήρ). He flourished in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180).

His precocious ability secured him a public appointment as teacher of his art while he was only a boy, attracting the note of the emperor himself; but at the age of twenty-five his faculties gave way, and he spent the remainder of his long life in a state of intellectual impotence. According to legend, he probably fell victim to a disease which resulted in meningitis, such as measles or yersinia. Philostratus of Lemnos notes he continued in this pitiable state until dying at an advanced age. The Suda records a rumor that after his death his heart was found to be enormous and covered in hair.

During his early years, however, he had composed a series of rhetorical treatises, which became popular text-books, and the subject of subsequent commentaries. We still possess some sections:

• on legal issues (staseis)
• on the invention of arguments
• on various kinds of style
• on the method of speaking effectively
• on rhetorical exercises (progymnasmata).

There seems to have been yet another Hermogenes of Tarsus, remembered for being put to death by Emperor Domitian because of some allusions in his History.