It has been employed for thousands of years, taking in everything from Julius Caesar writing veni, vidi, vici (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) to Bruce Forsyth greeting fans with “nice to see you, to see you nice”.
Caesar, Forsyth and countless others, from William Shakespeare to Nicki Minaj, have used classical rhetoric, the ancient formula for crafting and delivering persuasive arguments. Now, an academic argues that teaching it in schools would improve the nation’s communication skills no end.
