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In Leucippe and Clitophon and The Satyricon, Achilles Tatius and Petronius’ (respectively) successfully satirize the pompous-acting people (specifically, rhetoricians) of ancient novels by satirizing the ridiculously hilarious speeches of rhetoricians, as well as the hypocrisy of these rhetoricians’ lifestyles. Petronius ridicules these people throughout his novel, stabbing at their often melodramatic rhetoric and the extravagant, overly-exuberant, and hypocritical lives they lead. In fact, Petronius’ entire novel is a satire – of not only pompous people, but of many other aspects of ancient society. Tatius’ novel, on the other hand, has similar instances of cheesy rhetoric and hypocritical attitudes, but we cannot say for certain whether these instances were meant to be funny, being that Leucippe and Clitophon itself is not (necessarily) a satire. Nonetheless, it is necessary to explore the novels in question in order to ascertain how this satire is accomplished, and why. To understand how rhetoricians are satirized in these novels, one must understand the conventions in ancient society to which rhetoricians adhered. Rhetoricians were men which delivered orations on politics, philosophy, etcetera, depending upon their area of expertise. These were men who were trained to be eloquent speakers. Sometimes, however, these speeches come off as heavy-handed, pompous, self-important, and even melodramatic – as evidenced in many ancient novels such as Daphnis and Chloe by Longis, and even Leucippe and Clitophon. In addition, rhetoricians spoke against what they felt were society’s shortcomings – specifically, the vaunted actions and attitudes of the upper-class, as well as those in power. These speeches come off as hypocritical, however – the actions and attitudes of these same rhetoricians were every bit as pompous and arrogant as the men they were speaking against.
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