Imitatio in the progymnasmata
Rhetoric is a teaching tradition. The rhetorical exercises in the progymnasmata are the foundation for the teaching culture of rhetoric. The exercises combine theory and practice, but the surviving texts by Hermogenes, Aphthonius and Nicolaus do not tell us how the exercises were used in teaching. In the preface to Theon’s progymnasmata 1.61-64 he gives a short description of his pedagogical meth
