Declamar cantando. Stili lirici nell’oratoria tra I secolo a.C. e III d.C.

‘Sing-song’ Declamation. Lyric Styles of the Oratory from the 1st BC to the 3rd Centuries AD · By examining a corpus of Greek and Latin testimonies spanning from the 1st century BC to the 3rd century AD, this contribution delves into the ‘sing-song style’, a distinctive feature of the Asianic oratory that flourished throughout the Imperial period. The conservative elite scorned the emphasis on those rhetorical techniques designed to produce rhythmic and melodic effects, considering them as a degeneration that drained speeches of their substance. Nonetheless, the adoption of vocal styles drawn from theatre and music proved essential in transforming the speech into a performance of exceptional appeal, thereby defining the stylistic signature of a fashionable declaimer. This contribution aims to contextualize the practice of the ‘sing-song’ declamation while analyzing its manifestations, in an effort to better define its nature oscillating between articulated sing ing and a style deeply influenced by rhythm and melody.