Narrative Setting and <i>actio</i> in Herodian’s Speeches

Abstract This article studies how some of the narrative settings in Herodian’s History supply the reader with fundamental rhetorical information about the actio of its speeches. I examine the actio in the settings of the speeches delivered by Marcus Aurelius (1.4.2–6), Crispinus (8.3.4–6), and Maximinus (7.8.4–8). These settings can determine the length of a speech, the typology of an address, or the characterisation of the speaker. Accordingly, readers can understand why the historian chooses a particular type of speech in each narrative context. All this evinces the great care which Herodian put into the writing of these sections of his History .